initial commit of ebook 36279HEADmain

81 files changed, 25173 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/36279-8.txt b/36279-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e6aa01a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8272 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wood and Garden, by Gertrude Jekyll
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Wood and Garden
+       Notes and thoughts, practical and critical, of a working amateur
+
+Author: Gertrude Jekyll
+
+Release Date: June 1, 2011 [EBook #36279]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOOD AND GARDEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by StevenGibbs, Tracey-Ann Mayor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    WOOD AND GARDEN
+
+    [Illustration: _Frontispiece._]
+
+
+
+
+    WOOD AND GARDEN
+
+    NOTES AND THOUGHTS, PRACTICAL AND
+    CRITICAL, OF A WORKING AMATEUR
+
+    By
+
+    GERTRUDE JEKYLL
+
+    _With 71 Illustrations from Photographs
+    by the Author_
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    Second Edition
+
+    Longmans, Green, and Co.
+    39 Paternoster Row, London
+    New York and Bombay
+
+    1899
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+    Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+    At the Ballantyne Press
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+From its simple nature, this book seems scarcely to need any prefatory
+remarks, with the exception only of certain acknowledgments.
+
+A portion of the contents (about one-third) appeared during the years
+1896 and 1897 in the pages of the _Guardian_, as "Notes from Garden and
+Woodland." I am indebted to the courtesy of the editor and proprietors
+of that journal for permission to republish these notes.
+
+The greater part of the photographs from which the illustrations have
+been prepared were done on my own ground--a space of some fifteen acres.
+Some of them, owing to my want of technical ability as a photographer,
+were very weak, and have only been rendered available by the skill of
+the reproducer, for whose careful work my thanks are due.
+
+A small number of the photographs were done for reproduction in
+wood-engraving for Mr. Robinson's _Garden_, _Gardening Illustrated_, and
+_English Flower Garden_. I have his kind permission to use the original
+plates.
+
+                                                                 G. J.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+    INTRODUCTORY                                                 1-6
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+    JANUARY                                                      7-18
+
+    Beauty of woodland in winter -- The nut-walk --
+    Thinning the overgrowth -- A nut nursery -- _Iris
+    stylosa_ -- Its culture -- Its home in Algeria --
+    Discovery of the white variety -- Flowers and branches
+    for indoor decoration.
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+    FEBRUARY                                                    19-31
+
+    Distant promise of summer -- Ivy-berries -- Coloured
+    leaves -- _Berberis Aquifolium_ -- Its many merits --
+    Thinning and pruning shrubs -- Lilacs -- Removing
+    Suckers -- Training _Clematis flammula_ -- Forms of
+    trees -- Juniper, a neglected native evergreen --
+    Effect of snow -- Power of recovery -- Beauty of colour
+    -- Moss-grown stems.
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+    MARCH                                                       32-45
+
+    Flowering bulbs -- Dog-tooth Violet -- Rock-garden --
+    Variety of Rhododendron foliage -- A beautiful old
+    kind -- Suckers on grafted plants -- Plants for
+    filling up the beds -- Heaths -- Andromedas -- Lady
+    Fern -- _Lilium auratum_ -- Pruning Roses -- Training
+    and tying climbing plants -- Climbing and free-growing
+    Roses -- The Vine the best wall-covering -- Other
+    climbers -- Wild Clematis -- Wild Rose.
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+    APRIL                                                       46-58
+
+    Woodland spring flowers -- Daffodils in the copse --
+    Grape Hyacinths and other spring bulbs -- How best to
+    plant them -- Flowering shrubs -- Rock-plants -- Sweet
+    scents of April -- Snowy Mespilus, Marsh Marigolds,
+    and other spring flowers -- Primrose garden -- Pollen
+    of Scotch Fir -- Opening seed-pods of Fir and Gorse --
+    Auriculas -- Tulips -- Small shrubs for rock-garden --
+    Daffodils as cut flowers -- Lent Hellebores --
+    Primroses -- Leaves of wild Arum.
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+    MAY                                                         59-76
+
+    Cowslips -- Morells -- Woodruff -- Felling oak timber --
+    Trillium and other wood-plants -- Lily of the Valley
+    naturalised -- Rock-wall flowers -- Two good wall-shrubs
+    -- Queen wasps -- Rhododendrons -- Arrangement for colour
+    -- Separate colour-groups -- Difficulty of choosing --
+    Hardy Azaleas -- Grouping flowers that bloom together --
+    Guelder-rose as climber -- The garden-wall door -- The
+    Pæony garden -- Moutans -- Pæony varieties -- Species
+    desirable for garden.
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+    JUNE                                                        77-88
+
+    The gladness of June -- The time of Roses -- Garden
+    Roses -- Reine Blanche -- The old white Rose -- Old
+    garden Roses as standards -- Climbing and rambling Roses
+    -- Scotch Briars -- Hybrid Perpetuals a difficulty --
+    Tea Roses -- Pruning -- Sweet Peas autumn sown --
+    Elder-trees -- Virginian Cowslip -- Dividing
+    spring-blooming plants -- Two best Mulleins -- White
+    French Willow -- Bracken.
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+    JULY                                                        89-99
+
+    Scarcity of flowers -- Delphiniums -- Yuccas --
+    Cottager's way of protecting tender plants --
+    Alströmerias -- Carnations -- Gypsophila -- _Lilium
+    giganteum_ -- Cutting fern-pegs.
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+    AUGUST                                                     100-111
+
+    Leycesteria -- Early recollections -- Bank of choice
+    shrubs -- Bank of Briar Roses -- Hollyhocks -- Lavender
+    -- Lilies -- Bracken and Heaths -- The Fern-walk --
+    Late-blooming rock-plants -- Autumn flowers -- Tea Roses
+    -- Fruit of _Rosa rugosa_ -- Fungi -- Chantarelle.
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+    SEPTEMBER                                                  112-124
+
+    Sowing Sweet Peas -- Autumn-sown annuals -- Dahlias --
+    Worthless kinds -- Staking -- Planting the rock-garden
+    -- Growing small plants in a wall -- The old wall --
+    Dry-walling -- How built -- How planted -- Hyssop -- A
+    destructive storm -- Berries of Water-elder -- Beginning
+    ground-work.
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+
+    OCTOBER                                                    125-143
+
+    Michaelmas Daisies -- Arranging and staking --
+    Spindle-tree -- Autumn colour of Azaleas -- Quinces --
+    Medlars -- Advantage of early planting of shrubs --
+    Careful planting -- Pot-bound roots -- Cypress hedge
+    -- Planting in difficult places -- Hardy flower border
+    -- Lifting Dahlias -- Dividing hardy plants --
+    Dividing tools -- Plants difficult to divide --
+    Periwinkles -- Sternbergia -- Czar Violets -- Deep
+    cultivation for _Lilium giganteum_.
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+
+    NOVEMBER                                                   144-157
+
+    Giant Christmas Rose -- Hardy Chrysanthemums --
+    Sheltering tender shrubs -- Turfing by inoculation --
+    Transplanting large trees -- Sir Henry Steuart's
+    experience early in the century -- Collecting fallen
+    leaves -- Preparing grubbing tools -- Butcher's Broom
+    -- Alexandrian Laurel -- Hollies and Birches -- A
+    lesson in planting.
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+
+    DECEMBER                                                   158-170
+
+    The woodman at work -- Tree-cutting in frosty weather
+    -- Preparing sticks and stakes -- Winter Jasmine --
+    Ferns in the wood-walk -- Winter colour of evergreen
+    shrubs -- Copse-cutting -- Hoop-making -- Tools used
+    -- Sizes of hoops -- Men camping out -- Thatching with
+    hoop-chips -- The old thatcher's bill.
+
+  CHAPTER XIV
+
+    LARGE AND SMALL GARDENS                                    171-187
+
+    A well done villa-garden -- A small town-garden -- Two
+    delightful gardens of small size -- Twenty acres
+    within the walls -- A large country house and its
+    garden -- Terrace -- Lawn -- Parterre -- Free garden
+    -- Kitchen garden -- Buildings -- Ornamental orchard
+    -- Instructive mixed gardens -- Mr. Wilson's at Wisley
+    -- A window garden.
+
+  CHAPTER XV
+
+    BEGINNING AND LEARNING                                     188-199
+
+    The ignorant questioner -- Beginning at the end -- An
+    example -- Personal experience -- Absence of outer
+    help -- Johns' "Flowers of the Field" -- Collecting
+    plants -- Nurseries near London -- Wheel-spokes as
+    labels -- Garden friends -- Mr. Robinson's "English
+    Flower-Garden" -- Mr. Nicholson's "Dictionary of
+    Gardening" -- One main idea desirable -- Pictorial
+    treatment -- Training in fine art -- Adapting from
+    Nature -- Study of colour -- Ignorant use of the word
+    "artistic."
+
+  CHAPTER XVI
+
+    THE FLOWER-BORDER AND PERGOLA                              200-215
+
+    The flower-border -- The wall and its occupants --
+    _Choisya ternata_ -- Nandina -- Canon Ellacombe's
+    garden -- Treatment of colour-masses -- Arrangement of
+    plants in the border -- Dahlias and Cannas -- Covering
+    bare places -- The Pergola -- How made -- Suitable
+    climbers -- Arbours of trained Planes -- Garden
+    houses.
+
+  CHAPTER XVII
+
+    THE PRIMROSE GARDEN                                        216-220
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII
+
+    COLOURS OF FLOWERS                                         221-228
+
+  CHAPTER XIX
+
+    THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN                                   229-240
+
+  CHAPTER XX
+
+    THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS                                  241-248
+
+  CHAPTER XXI
+
+    NOVELTY AND VARIETY                                        249-255
+
+  CHAPTER XXII
+
+    WEEDS AND PESTS                                            256-262
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII
+
+    THE BEDDING FASHION AND ITS INFLUENCE                      263-270
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV
+
+    MASTERS AND MEN                                            271-279
+
+    INDEX                                                          280
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    FRONTISPIECE                                          _face title_
+
+    A WILD JUNIPER                                   _face page_    19
+
+    SCOTCH FIRS THROWN ON TO FROZEN WATER BY SNOWSTORM    "         27
+
+    OLD JUNIPER, SHOWING FORMER INJURIES                  "         29
+
+    JUNIPER, LATELY WRECKED BY SNOWSTORM                  "         29
+
+    GARDEN DOOR-WAY WREATHED WITH CLEMATIS GRAVEOLENS     "         39
+
+    COTTAGE PORCH WREATHED WITH THE DOUBLE WHITE ROSE
+    (_R. alba_)                                           "         39
+
+    WILD HOP, ENTWINING WORMWOOD AND COW-PARSNIP          "         43
+
+    DAFFODILS IN THE COPSE                                "         48
+
+    MAGNOLIA STELLATA                                     "         50
+
+    DAFFODILS AMONG JUNIPERS WHERE GARDEN JOINS COPSE     "         51
+
+    TIARELLA CORDIFOLIA                                   "         53
+
+    HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY. (_See page 105_)              "         53
+
+    TULIPA RETROFLEXA                                     "         55
+
+    LATE SINGLE TULIPS, BREEDERS AND BYBLOEMEN            "         55
+
+    TRILLIUM IN THE WILD GARDEN                           "         61
+
+    RHODODENDRONS WHERE THE COPSE AND GARDEN MEET         "         65
+
+    GRASS WALKS THROUGH THE COPSE                         "         66
+
+    RHODODENDRONS AT THE EDGE OF THE COPSE                "         68
+
+    SOUTH SIDE OF DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA
+    AND CHOISYA                                           "         72
+
+    NORTH SIDE OF THE SAME DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS
+    MONTANA AND GUELDER-ROSE                              "         72
+
+    FREE CLUSTER-ROSE AS STANDARD IN A COTTAGE GARDEN     "         77
+
+    DOUBLE WHITE SCOTCH BRIAR                             "         81
+
+    PART OF A BUSH OF ROSA POLYANTHA                      "         82
+
+    GARLAND-ROSE SHOWING NATURAL WAY OF GROWTH            "         82
+
+    LILAC MARIE LEGRAYE (_See page 23_)                   "         84
+
+    FLOWERING ELDER AND PATH FROM GARDEN TO COPSE         "         84
+
+    THE GIANT LILY                                        "         96
+
+    CISTUS FLORENTINUS                                    "        101
+
+    THE GREAT ASPHODEL                                    "        101
+
+    LAVENDER HEDGE AND STEPS TO THE LOFT                  "        105
+
+    HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY                                "        105
+
+    SOLOMON'S SEAL IN SPRING, IN THE UPPER PART
+    OF THE FERN-WALK                                      "        107
+
+    THE FERN-WALK IN AUGUST                               "        107
+
+    JACK (_See page 79_)                                  "        117
+
+    THE "OLD WALL"                                        "        117
+
+    ERINUS ALPINUS, CLOTHING STEPS IN ROCK-WALL           "        121
+
+    BORDERS OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES                         "        126
+
+    PENS FOR STORING DEAD LEAVES                          "        150
+
+    CAREFUL WILD-GARDENING--WHITE FOXGLOVES AT
+    THE EDGE OF THE FIR WOOD. (_See page 270_)            "        150
+
+    HOLLY STEMS IN AN OLD HEDGE-ROW                       "        153
+
+    WILD JUNIPERS                                         "        154
+
+    WILD JUNIPERS                                         "        156
+
+    THE WOODMAN                                           "        158
+
+    GRUBBING A TREE-STUMP                                 "        161
+
+    FELLING AND GRUBBING TOOLS (_See page 150_)           "        161
+
+    HOOP-MAKING IN THE WOODS                              "        167
+
+    HOOP-SHAVING                                          "        169
+
+    SHED-ROOF, THATCHED WITH HOOP-CHIP                    "        169
+
+    GARLAND-ROSE WREATHING THE END OF A TERRACE WALL      "        178
+
+    A ROADSIDE COTTAGE GARDEN                             "        185
+
+    A FLOWER-BORDER IN JUNE                               "        200
+
+    PATHWAY ACROSS THE SOUTH BORDER IN JULY               "        202
+
+    OUTSIDE VIEW OF THE BRICK PERGOLA SHOWN
+    AT PAGE 214, AFTER SIX YEARS' GROWTH                  "        202
+
+    END OF FLOWER-BORDER AND ENTRANCE OF PERGOLA          "        210
+
+    SOUTH BORDER DOOR AND YUCCAS IN AUGUST                "        210
+
+    STONE-BUILT PERGOLA WITH WROUGHT OAK BEAMS            "        214
+
+    PERGOLA WITH BRICK PIERS AND BEAMS OF ROUGH OAK       "        214
+
+    EVENING IN THE PRIMROSE GARDEN                        "        217
+
+    TALL SNAPDRAGONS GROWING IN A DRY WALL                "        251
+
+    MULLEINS GROWING IN THE FACE OF DRY WALL
+    (_See "Old Wall," page 116_)                          "        251
+
+    GERANIUMS IN NEAPOLITAN POTS                          "        267
+
+    SPACE IN STEP AND TANK-GARDEN FOR LILIES,
+    CANNAS, AND GERANIUMS                                 "        268
+
+    HYDRANGEAS IN TUBS, IN A PART OF THE SAME GARDEN      "        268
+
+    MULLEIN (VERBASCUM PHLOMOIDES) AT THE EDGE
+    OF THE FIR WOOD                                       "        270
+
+    A GRASS PATH IN THE COPSE                             "        270
+
+
+
+
+WOOD AND GARDEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+There are already many and excellent books about gardening; but the love
+of a garden, already so deeply implanted in the English heart, is so
+rapidly growing, that no excuse is needed for putting forth another.
+
+I lay no claim either to literary ability, or to botanical knowledge, or
+even to knowing the best practical methods of cultivation; but I have
+lived among outdoor flowers for many years, and have not spared myself
+in the way of actual labour, and have come to be on closely intimate and
+friendly terms with a great many growing things, and have acquired
+certain instincts which, though not clearly defined, are of the nature
+of useful knowledge.
+
+But the lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others,
+is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives. I
+rejoice when I see any one, and especially children, inquiring about
+flowers, and wanting gardens of their own, and carefully working in
+them. For the love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies, but
+always grows and grows to an enduring and ever-increasing source of
+happiness.
+
+If in the following chapters I have laid special stress upon gardening
+for beautiful effect, it is because it is the way of gardening that I
+love best, and understand most of, and that seems to me capable of
+giving the greatest amount of pleasure. I am strongly for treating
+garden and wooded ground in a pictorial way, mainly with large effects,
+and in the second place with lesser beautiful incidents, and for so
+arranging plants and trees and grassy spaces that they look happy and at
+home, and make no parade of conscious effort. I try for beauty and
+harmony everywhere, and especially for harmony of colour. A garden so
+treated gives the delightful feeling of repose, and refreshment, and
+purest enjoyment of beauty, that seems to my understanding to be the
+best fulfilment of its purpose; while to the diligent worker its
+happiness is like the offering of a constant hymn of praise. For I hold
+that the best purpose of a garden is to give delight and to give
+refreshment of mind, to soothe, to refine, and to lift up the heart in a
+spirit of praise and thankfulness. It is certain that those who practise
+gardening in the best ways find it to be so.
+
+But the scope of practical gardening covers a range of horticultural
+practice wide enough to give play to every variety of human taste. Some
+find their greatest pleasure in collecting as large a number as possible
+of all sorts of plants from all sources, others in collecting them
+themselves in their foreign homes, others in making rock-gardens, or
+ferneries, or peat-gardens, or bog-gardens, or gardens for conifers or
+for flowering shrubs, or special gardens of plants and trees with
+variegated or coloured leaves, or in the cultivation of some particular
+race or family of plants. Others may best like wide lawns with large
+trees, or wild gardening, or a quite formal garden, with trim hedge and
+walk, and terrace, and brilliant parterre, or a combination of several
+ways of gardening. And all are right and reasonable and enjoyable to
+their owners, and in some way or degree helpful to others.
+
+The way that seems to me most desirable is again different, and I have
+made an attempt to describe it in some of its aspects. But I have
+learned much, and am always learning, from other people's gardens, and
+the lesson I have learned most thoroughly is, never to say "I
+know"--there is so infinitely much to learn, and the conditions of
+different gardens vary so greatly, even when soil and situation appear
+to be alike and they are in the same district. Nature is such a subtle
+chemist that one never knows what she is about, or what surprises she
+may have in store for us.
+
+Often one sees in the gardening papers discussions about the treatment
+of some particular plant. One man writes to say it can only be done one
+way, another to say it can only be done quite some other way, and the
+discussion waxes hot and almost angry, and the puzzled reader, perhaps
+as yet young in gardening, cannot tell what to make of it. And yet the
+two writers are both able gardeners, and both absolutely trustworthy,
+only they should have said, "In my experience _in this place_ such a
+plant can only be done in such a way." Even plants of the same family
+will not do equally well in the same garden. Every practical gardener
+knows this in the case of strawberries and potatoes; he has to find out
+which kinds will do in his garden; the experience of his friend in the
+next county is probably of no use whatever.
+
+I have learnt much from the little cottage gardens that help to make our
+English waysides the prettiest in the temperate world. One can hardly go
+into the smallest cottage garden without learning or observing something
+new. It may be some two plants growing beautifully together by some
+happy chance, or a pretty mixed tangle of creepers, or something that
+one always thought must have a south wall doing better on an east one.
+But eye and brain must be alert to receive the impression and studious
+to store it, to add to the hoard of experience. And it is important to
+train oneself to have a good flower-eye; to be able to see at a glance
+what flowers are good and which are unworthy, and why, and to keep an
+open mind about it; not to be swayed by the petty tyrannies of the
+"florist" or show judge; for, though some part of his judgment may be
+sound, he is himself a slave to rules, and must go by points which are
+defined arbitrarily and rigidly, and have reference mainly to the
+show-table, leaving out of account, as if unworthy of consideration,
+such matters as gardens and garden beauty, and human delight, and
+sunshine, and varying lights of morning and evening and noonday. But
+many, both nurserymen and private people, devote themselves to growing
+and improving the best classes of hardy flowers, and we can hardly offer
+them too much grateful praise, or do them too much honour. For what
+would our gardens be without the Roses, Pæonies, and Gladiolus of
+France, and the Tulips and Hyacinths of Holland, to say nothing of the
+hosts of good things raised by our home growers, and of the enterprise
+of the great firms whose agents are always searching the world for
+garden treasures?
+
+Let no one be discouraged by the thought of how much there is to learn.
+Looking back upon nearly thirty years of gardening (the earlier part of
+it in groping ignorance with scant means of help), I can remember no
+part of it that was not full of pleasure and encouragement. For the
+first steps are steps into a delightful Unknown, the first successes are
+victories all the happier for being scarcely expected, and with the
+growing knowledge comes the widening outlook, and the comforting sense
+of an ever-increasing gain of critical appreciation. Each new step
+becomes a little surer, and each new grasp a little firmer, till, little
+by little, comes the power of intelligent combination, the nearest
+thing we can know to the mighty force of creation.
+
+And a garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful
+watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches
+entire trust. "Paul planteth and Apollos watereth, but God giveth the
+increase." The good gardener knows with absolute certainty that if he
+does his part, if he gives the labour, the love, and every aid that his
+knowledge of his craft, experience of the conditions of his place, and
+exercise of his personal wit can work together to suggest, that so
+surely as he does this diligently and faithfully, so surely will God
+give the increase. Then with the honestly-earned success comes the
+consciousness of encouragement to renewed effort, and, as it were, an
+echo of the gracious words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JANUARY
+
+Beauty of woodland in winter -- The nut-walk -- Thinning the overgrowth
+-- A nut nursery -- _Iris stylosa_ -- Its culture -- Its home in Algeria
+-- Discovery of the white variety -- Flowers and branches for indoor
+decoration.
+
+
+A hard frost is upon us. The thermometer registered eighteen degrees
+last night, and though there was only one frosty night next before it,
+the ground is hard frozen. Till now a press of other work has stood in
+the way of preparing protecting stuff for tender shrubs, but now I go up
+into the copse with a man and chopping tools to cut out some of the
+Scotch fir that are beginning to crowd each other.
+
+How endlessly beautiful is woodland in winter! To-day there is a thin
+mist; just enough to make a background of tender blue mystery three
+hundred yards away, and to show any defect in the grouping of near
+trees. No day could be better for deciding which trees are to come down;
+there is not too much at a time within sight; just one good picture-full
+and no more. On a clear day the eye and mind are distracted by seeing
+away into too many planes, and it is much more difficult to decide what
+is desirable in the way of broad treatment of nearer objects.
+
+The ground has a warm carpet of pale rusty fern; tree-stem and branch
+and twig show tender colour-harmonies of grey bark and silver-grey
+lichen, only varied by the warm feathery masses of birch spray. Now the
+splendid richness of the common holly is more than ever impressive, with
+its solid masses of full, deep colour, and its wholesome look of perfect
+health and vigour. Sombrely cheerful, if one may use such a mixture of
+terms; sombre by reason of the extreme depth of tone, and yet cheerful
+from the look of glad life, and from the assurance of warm shelter and
+protecting comfort to bird and beast and neighbouring vegetation. The
+picture is made complete by the slender shafts of the silver-barked
+birches, with their half-weeping heads of delicate, warm-coloured spray.
+Has any tree so graceful a way of throwing up its stems as the birch?
+They seem to leap and spring into the air, often leaning and curving
+upward from the very root, sometimes in forms that would be almost
+grotesque were it not for the never-failing rightness of free-swinging
+poise and perfect balance. The tints of the stem give a precious lesson
+in colour. The white of the bark is here silvery-white and there
+milk-white, and sometimes shows the faintest tinge of rosy flush. Where
+the bark has not yet peeled, the stem is clouded and banded with
+delicate grey, and with the silver-green of lichen. For about two feet
+upward from the ground, in the case of young trees of about seven to
+nine inches diameter, the bark is dark in colour, and lies in thick and
+extremely rugged upright ridges, contrasting strongly with the smooth
+white skin above. Where the two join, the smooth bark is parted in
+upright slashes, through which the dark, rough bark seems to swell up,
+reminding one forcibly of some of the old fifteenth-century German
+costumes, where a dark velvet is arranged to rise in crumpled folds
+through slashings in white satin. In the stems of older birches the
+rough bark rises much higher up the trunk and becomes clothed with
+delicate grey-green lichen.
+
+The nut-walk was planted twelve years ago. There are two rows each side,
+one row four feet behind the other, and the nuts are ten feet apart in
+the rows. They are planted zigzag, those in the back rows showing
+between the front ones. As the two inner rows are thirteen feet apart
+measuring across the path, it leaves a shady border on each side, with
+deeper bays between the nearer trees. Lent Hellebores fill one border
+from end to end; the other is planted with the Corsican and the native
+kinds, so that throughout February and March there is a complete bit of
+garden of one kind of plant in full beauty of flower and foliage.
+
+The nut-trees have grown into such thick clumps that now there must be a
+vigorous thinning. Each stool has from eight to twelve main stems, the
+largest of them nearly two inches thick. Some shoot almost upright,
+but two or three in each stool spread outward, with quite a different
+habit of growth, branching about in an angular fashion. These are the
+oldest and thickest. There are also a number of straight suckers one and
+two years old. Now when I look at some fine old nut alley, with the tops
+arching and meeting overhead, as I hope mine will do in a few years, I
+see that the trees have only a few stems, usually from three to five at
+the most, and I judge that now is the time to thin mine to about the
+right number, so that the strength and growing power may be thrown into
+these, and not allowed to dilute and waste itself in growing extra
+faggoting. The first to be cut away are the old crooked stems. They grow
+nearly horizontally and are all elbows, and often so tightly locked into
+the straighter rods that they have to be chopped to pieces before they
+can be pulled out. When these are gone it is easier to get at the other
+stems, though they are often so close together at the base that it is
+difficult to chop or saw them out without hurting the bark of the ones
+to be left. All the young suckers are cut away. They are of straight,
+clean growth, and we prize them as the best possible sticks for
+Chrysanthemums and potted Lilies.
+
+After this bold thinning, instead of dense thickety bushes we have a few
+strong, well-branched rods to each stool. At first the nut-walk looks
+wofully naked, and for the time its pictorial value is certainly
+lessened; but it has to be done, and when summer side-twigs have grown
+and leafed, it will be fairly well clothed, and meanwhile the Hellebores
+will be the better for the thinner shade.
+
+The nut-catkins are already an inch long, but are tightly closed, and
+there is no sign as yet of the bright crimson little sea-anemones that
+will appear next month and will duly grow into nut-bearing twigs. Round
+the edges of the base of the stools are here and there little branching
+suckers. These are the ones to look out for, to pull off and grow into
+young trees. A firm grasp and a sharp tug brings them up with a fine
+supply of good fibrous root. After two years in the nursery they are
+just right to plant out.
+
+The trees in the nut-walk were grown in this way fourteen years ago,
+from small suckers pulled off plants that came originally from the
+interesting cob-nut nursery at Calcot, near Reading.
+
+I shall never forget a visit to that nursery some six-and-twenty years
+ago. It was walled all round, and a deep-sounding bell had to be rung
+many times before any one came to open the gate; but at last it was
+opened by a fine, strongly-built, sunburnt woman of the type of the good
+working farmer's wife, that I remember as a child. She was the
+forewoman, who worked the nursery with surprisingly few hands--only
+three men, if I remember rightly--but she looked as if she could do the
+work of "all two men" herself. One of the specialties of the place was a
+fine breed of mastiffs; another was an old Black Hamburg vine, that
+rambled and clambered in and out of some very old greenhouses, and was
+wonderfully productive. There were alleys of nuts in all directions, and
+large spreading patches of palest yellow Daffodils--the double
+_Narcissus cernuus_, now so scarce and difficult to grow. Had I then
+known how precious a thing was there in fair abundance, I should not
+have been contented with the modest dozen that I asked for. It was a
+most pleasant garden to wander in, especially with the old Mr. Webb who
+presently appeared. He was dressed in black clothes of an old-looking
+cut--a Quaker, I believe. Never shall I forget an apple-tart he invited
+me to try as a proof of the merit of the "Wellington" apple. It was not
+only good, but beautiful; the cooked apple looking rosy and transparent,
+and most inviting. He told me he was an ardent preacher of total
+abstinence, and took me to a grassy, shady place among the nuts, where
+there was an upright stone slab, like a tombstone, with the inscription:
+
+    TO ALCOHOL.
+
+He had dug a grave, and poured into it a quantity of wine and beer and
+spirits, and placed the stone as a memorial of his abhorrence of drink.
+The whole thing remains in my mind like a picture--the shady groves of
+old nuts, in tenderest early leaf, the pale Daffodils, the mighty
+chained mastiffs with bloodshot eyes and murderous fangs, the brawny,
+wholesome forewoman, and the trim old gentleman in black. It was the
+only nursery I ever saw where one would expect to see fairies on a
+summer's night.
+
+I never tire of admiring and praising _Iris stylosa_, which has proved
+itself such a good plant for English gardens; at any rate, for those in
+our southern counties. Lovely in form and colour, sweetly-scented and
+with admirable foliage, it has in addition to these merits the unusual
+one of a blooming season of six months' duration. The first flowers come
+with the earliest days of November, and its season ends with a rush of
+bloom in the first half of April. Then is the time to take up old tufts
+and part them, and plant afresh; the old roots will have dried up into
+brown wires, and the new will be pushing. It thrives in rather poor
+soil, and seems to bloom all the better for having its root-run invaded
+by some stronger plant. When I first planted a quantity I had brought
+from its native place, I made the mistake of putting it in a
+well-prepared border. At first I was delighted to see how well it
+flourished, but as it gave me only thick masses of leaves a yard long,
+and no flowers, it was clear that it wanted to be less well fed. After
+changing it to poor soil, at the foot of a sunny wall close to a strong
+clump of Alströmeria, I was rewarded with a good crop of flowers; and
+the more the Alströmeria grew into it on one side and _Plumbago
+Larpenti_ on the other, the more freely the brave little Iris flowered.
+The flower has no true stem; what serves as a stem, sometimes a foot
+long, is the elongated style, so that the seed-pod has to be looked for
+deep down at the base of the tufts of leaves, and almost under ground.
+The specific name, _stylosa_, is so clearly descriptive, that one
+regrets that the longer, and certainly uglier, _unguicularis_ should be
+preferred by botanists.
+
+What a delight it was to see it for the first time in its home in the
+hilly wastes, a mile or two inland from the town of Algiers! Another
+lovely blue Iris was there too, _I. alata_ or _scorpioides_, growing
+under exactly the same conditions; but this is a plant unwilling to be
+acclimatised in England. What a paradise it was for flower-rambles,
+among the giant Fennels and the tiny orange Marigolds, and the immense
+bulbs of _Scilla maritima_ standing almost out of the ground, and the
+many lovely Bee-orchises and the fairy-like _Narcissus serotinus_, and
+the groves of Prickly Pear wreathed and festooned with the graceful
+tufts of bell-shaped flower and polished leaves of _Clematis cirrhosa_!
+
+It was in the days when there were only a few English residents, but
+among them was the Rev. Edwyn Arkwright, who by his happy discovery of a
+white-flowered _Iris stylosa_, the only one that has been found wild,
+has enriched our gardens with a most lovely variety of this excellent
+plant. I am glad to be able to quote his own words:--
+
+"The finding of the white _Iris stylosa_ belongs to the happy old times
+twenty-five years ago, when there were no social duties and no
+vineyards[1] in Algiers. My two sisters and I bought three horses, and
+rode wild every day in the scrub of Myrtle, Cistus, Dwarf Oak, &c. It
+was about five miles from the town, on what is called the 'Sahel,' that
+the one plant grew that I was told botanists knew ought to exist, but
+with all their searching had never found. I am thankful that I dug it up
+instead of picking it, only knowing that it was a pretty flower. Then
+after a year or two Durando saw it, and took off his hat to it, and told
+me what a treasure it was, and proceeded to send off little bits to his
+friends; and among them all, Ware of Tottenham managed to be beforehand,
+and took a first-class certificate for it. It is odd that there should
+never have been another plant found, for there never was such a
+free-growing and multiplying plant. My sister in Herefordshire has had
+over fifty blooms this winter; but we count it by thousands, and it is
+_the_ feature in all decorations in every English house in Algiers."
+
+[1] The planting of large vineyards, in some cases of private
+enterprise, had not proved a financial success.
+
+Throughout January, and indeed from the middle of December, is the time
+when outdoor flowers for cutting and house decoration are most scarce;
+and yet there are Christmas Roses and yellow Jasmine and Laurustinus,
+and in all open weather _Iris stylosa_ and Czar Violets. A very few
+flowers can be made to look well if cleverly arranged with plenty of
+good foliage; and even when a hard and long frost spoils the few
+blooms that would otherwise be available, leafy branches alone are
+beautiful in rooms. But, as in all matters that have to do with
+decoration, everything depends on a right choice of material and the
+exercise of taste in disposing it. Red-tinted Berberis always looks well
+alone, if three or four branches are boldly cut from two to three feet
+long. Branches of the spotted Aucuba do very well by themselves, and are
+specially beautiful in blue china; the larger the leaves and the bolder
+the markings, the better. Where there is an old Exmouth Magnolia that
+can spare some small branches, nothing makes a nobler room-ornament. The
+long arching sprays of Alexandrian Laurel do well with green or
+variegated Box, and will live in a room for several weeks. Among useful
+winter leaves of smaller growth, those of _Epimedium pinnatum_ have a
+fine red colour and delicate veining, and I find them very useful for
+grouping with greenhouse flowers of delicate texture. _Gaultheria
+Shallon_ is at its best in winter, and gives valuable branches and twigs
+for cutting; and much to be prized are sprays of the Japan Privet, with
+its tough, highly-polished leaves, so much like those of the orange.
+There is a variegated Eurybia, small branches of which are excellent;
+and always useful are the gold and silver Hollies.
+
+There is a little plant, _Ophiopogon spicatum_, that I grow in rather
+large quantity for winter cutting, the leaves being at their best in the
+winter months. They are sword-shaped and of a lively green colour, and
+are arranged in flat sheaves after the manner of a flag-Iris. I pull up
+a whole plant at a time--a two-year-old plant is a spreading tuft of the
+little sheaves--and wash it and cut away the groups of leaves just at
+the root, so that they are held together by the root-stock. They last
+long in water, and are beautiful with Roman Hyacinths or Freesias or
+_Iris stylosa_ and many other flowers. The leaves of Megaseas,
+especially those of the _cordifolia_ section, colour grandly in winter,
+and look fine in a large bowl with the largest blooms of Christmas
+Roses, or with forced Hyacinths. Much useful material can be found among
+Ivies, both of the wild and garden kinds. When they are well established
+they generally throw out rather woody front shoots; these are the ones
+to look out for, as they stand out with a certain degree of stiffness
+that makes them easier to arrange than weaker trailing pieces.
+
+I do not much care for dried flowers--the bulrush and pampas-grass
+decoration has been so much overdone, that it has become wearisome--but
+I make an exception in favour of the flower of _Eulalia japonica_, and
+always give it a place. It does not come to its full beauty out of
+doors; it only finishes its growth late in October, and therefore does
+not have time to dry and expand. I grew it for many years before finding
+out that the closed and rather draggled-looking heads would open
+perfectly in a warm room. The uppermost leaf often confines the flower,
+and should be taken off to release it; the flower does not seem to
+mature quite enough to come free of itself. Bold masses of Helichrysum
+certainly give some brightness to a room during the darkest weeks of
+winter, though the brightest yellow is the only one I much care to have;
+there is a look of faded tinsel about the other colourings. I much prize
+large bunches of the native Iris berries, and grow it largely for winter
+room-ornament.
+
+Among the many valuable suggestions in Mrs. Earle's delightful book,
+"Pot-pourri from a Surrey Garden," is the use indoors of the smaller
+coloured gourds. As used by her they give a bright and cheerful look to
+a room that even flowers can not surpass.
+
+[Illustration: A WILD JUNIPER.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FEBRUARY
+
+Distant promise of summer -- Ivy-berries -- Coloured leaves -- _Berberis
+Aquifolium_ -- Its many merits -- Thinning and pruning shrubs -- Lilacs
+-- Removing suckers -- Training _Clematis flammula_ -- Forms of trees --
+Juniper, a neglected native evergreen -- Effect of snow -- Power of
+recovery -- Beauty of colour -- Moss-grown stems.
+
+
+There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the
+yet distant, but surely coming, summer. Perhaps it is a warm, mossy
+scent that greets one when passing along the southern side of a
+hedge-bank; or it may be in some woodland opening, where the sun has
+coaxed out the pungent smell of the trailing ground Ivy, whose blue
+flowers will soon appear; but the day always comes, and with it the glad
+certainty that summer is nearing, and that the good things promised will
+never fail.
+
+How strangely little of positive green colour is to be seen in copse and
+woodland. Only the moss is really green. The next greenest thing is the
+northern sides of the trunks of beech and oak. Walking southward they
+are all green, but looking back they are silver-grey. The undergrowth is
+of brambles and sparse fronds of withered bracken; the bracken less
+beaten down than usual, for the winter has been without snow; only where
+the soil is deeper, and the fern has grown more tall and rank, it has
+fallen into thick, almost felted masses, and the stalks all lying one
+way make the heaps look like lumps of fallen thatch. The bramble
+leaves--last year's leaves, which are held all the winter--are of a
+dark, blackish-bronze colour, or nearly red where they have seen the
+sun. Age seems to give them a sort of hard surface and enough of a
+polish to reflect the sky; the young leaves that will come next month
+are almost woolly at first. Grassy tufts show only bleached bents, so
+tightly matted that one wonders how the delicate young blades will be
+able to spear through. Ivy-berries, hanging in thick clusters, are still
+in beauty; they are so heavy that they weigh down the branches. There is
+a peculiar beauty in the form and veining of the plain-shaped leaves
+belonging to the mature or flowering state that the plant reaches when
+it can no longer climb, whether on a wall six feet high or on the
+battlements of a castle. Cuttings grown from such portions retain this
+habit, and form densely-flowering bushes of compact shape.
+
+Beautiful colouring is now to be seen in many of the plants whose leaves
+do not die down in winter. Foremost amongst these is the Foam-flower
+(_Tiarella cordifolia_). Its leaves, now lying on the ground, show
+bright colouring, inclining to scarlet, crimson, and orange. _Tellima_,
+its near relation, is also well coloured. _Galax aphylla_, with its
+polished leaves of hard texture, and stalks almost as stiff as wire, is
+nearly as bright; and many of the Megaseas are of a fine bronze red, the
+ones that colour best being the varieties of the well-known _M.
+crassifolia_ and _M. cordifolia_. Among shrubs, some of the nearly
+allied genera, popularly classed under the name Andromeda, are beautiful
+in reddish colour passing into green, in some of the leaves by tender
+gradation, and in others by bold splashing. _Berberis Aquifolium_ begins
+to colour after the first frosts; though some plants remain green, the
+greater number take on some rich tinting of red or purple, and
+occasionally in poor soil and in full sun a bright red that may almost
+be called scarlet.
+
+What a precious thing this fine old Berberis is! What should we do in
+winter without its vigorous masses of grand foliage in garden and
+shrubbery, to say nothing of its use indoors? Frequent as it is in
+gardens, it is seldom used as well or thoughtfully as it deserves. There
+are many places where, between garden and wood, a well-considered
+planting of Berberis, combined with two or three other things of larger
+stature, such as the fruiting Barberry, and Whitethorn and Holly, would
+make a very enjoyable piece of shrub wild-gardening. When one reflects
+that _Berberis Aquifolium_ is individually one of the handsomest of
+small shrubs, that it is at its very best in mid-winter, that every leaf
+is a marvel of beautiful drawing and construction, and that its ruddy
+winter colouring is a joy to see, enhanced as it is by the glistening
+brightness of the leaf-surface; and further, when one remembers that in
+spring the whole picture changes--that the polished leaves are green
+again, and the bushes are full of tufted masses of brightest yellow
+bloom, and fuller of bee-music than any other plant then in flower; and
+that even then it has another season of beauty yet to come, when in the
+days of middle summer it is heavily loaded with the thick-clustered
+masses of berries, covered with a brighter and bluer bloom than almost
+any other fruit can show,--when one thinks of all this brought together
+in one plant, it seems but right that we should spare no pains to use it
+well. It is the only hardy shrub I can think of that is in one or other
+of its varied forms of beauty throughout the year. It is never leafless
+or untidy; it never looks mangy like an Ilex in April, or moulting like
+a Holly in May, or patchy and unfinished like Yew and Box and many other
+evergreens when their young leafy shoots are sprouting.
+
+We have been thinning the shrubs in one of the rather large clumps next
+to the lawn, taking the older wood in each clump right out from the
+bottom and letting more light and air into the middle. Weigelas grow
+fast and very thick. Quite two-thirds have been cut out of each bush of
+Weigela, Philadelphus, and Ribes, and a good bit out of Ceanothus,
+"Gloire de Versailles," my favourite of its kind, and all the oldest
+wood from _Viburnum plicatus_. The stuff cut out makes quite a
+respectable lot of faggoting. How extremely dense and hard is the wood
+of Philadelphus! as close-grained as Box, and almost as hard as the
+bright yellow wood of Berberis.
+
+Some of the Lilacs have a good many suckers from the root, as well as on
+the lower part of the stem. These must all come away, and then the trees
+will have a good dressing of manure. They are greedy feeders, and want
+it badly in our light soil, and surely no flowering shrub more truly
+deserves it. The Lilacs I have are some of the beautiful kinds raised in
+France, for which we can never be thankful enough to our good neighbours
+across the Channel. The white variety, "Marie Legraye," always remains
+my favourite. Some are larger and whiter, and have the trusses more
+evenly and closely filled, but this beautiful Marie fills one with a
+satisfying conviction as of something that is just right, that has
+arrived at the point of just the best and most lovable kind of beauty,
+and has been wisely content to stay there, not attempting to pass beyond
+and excel itself. Its beauty is modest and reserved, and temperate and
+full of refinement. The colour has a deliciously-tender warmth of white,
+and as the truss is not over-full, there is room for a delicate play of
+warm half-light within its recesses. Among the many beautiful coloured
+Lilacs, I am fond of Lucie Baltet and Princesse Marie. There may be
+better flowers from the ordinary florist point of view, but these have
+the charm that is a good garden flower's most precious quality. I do not
+like the cold, heavy-coloured ones of the bluish-slaty kinds. No shrub
+is hardier than the Lilac; I believe they flourish even within the
+Arctic Circle. It is very nearly allied to Privet; so nearly, that the
+oval-leaved Privet is commonly used as a stock. Standard trees flower
+much better than bushes; in this form all the strength seems to go
+directly to the flowering boughs. No shrub is more persistent in
+throwing up suckers from the root and from the lower part of the stem,
+but in bush trees as well as in standards they should be carefully
+removed every year. In the case of bushes, three or four main stems will
+be enough to leave. When taking away suckers of any kind whatever, it is
+much better to tear them out than to cut them off. A cut, however close,
+leaves a base from which they may always spring again, but if pulled or
+wrenched out they bring away with them the swollen base that, if left
+in, would be a likely source of future trouble.
+
+Before the end of February we must be sure to prune and train any plants
+there may be of _Clematis flammula_. Its growth is so rapid when once it
+begins, that if it is overlooked it soon grows into a tangled mass of
+succulent weak young stuff, quite unmanageable two months hence, when it
+will be hanging about in helpless masses, dead and living together. If
+it is left till then, one can only engirdle the whole thing with a soft
+tarred rope and sling it up somehow or anyhow. But if taken now, when
+the young growths are just showing at the joints, the last year's mass
+can be untangled, the dead and the over-much cut out, and the best
+pieces trained in. In gardening, the interests of the moment are so
+engrossing that one is often tempted to forget the future; but it is
+well to remember that this lovely and tenderly-scented Clematis will be
+one of the chief beauties of September, and well deserves a little
+timely care.
+
+In summer-time one never really knows how beautiful are the forms of the
+deciduous trees. It is only in winter, when they are bare of leaves,
+that one can fully enjoy their splendid structure and design, their
+admirable qualities of duly apportioned strength and grace of poise, and
+the way the spread of the many-branched head has its equivalent in the
+wide-reaching ground-grasp of the root. And it is interesting to see
+how, in the many different kinds of tree, the same laws are always in
+force, and the same results occur, and yet by the employment of what
+varied means. For nothing in the growth of trees can be much more unlike
+than the habit of the oak and that of the weeping willow, though the
+unlikeness only comes from the different adjustment of the same sources
+of power and the same weights, just as in the movement of wind-blown
+leaves some flutter and some undulate, while others turn over and back
+again. Old apple-trees are specially noticeable for their beauty in
+winter, when their extremely graceful shape, less visible when in
+loveliness of spring bloom or in rich bounty of autumn fruit, is seen to
+fullest advantage.
+
+Few in number are our native evergreens, and for that reason all the
+more precious. One of them, the common Juniper, is one of the best of
+shrubs either for garden or wild ground, and yet, strangely enough, it
+is so little appreciated that it is scarcely to be had in nurseries.
+Chinese Junipers, North American Junipers, Junipers from Spain and
+Greece, from Nepaul and Siberia, may be had, but the best Juniper of all
+is very rarely grown. Were it a common tree one could see a sort of
+reason (to some minds) for overlooking it, but though it is fairly
+abundant on a few hill-sides in the southern counties, it is by no means
+widely distributed throughout the country. Even this reason would not be
+consistent with common practice, for the Holly is abundant throughout
+England, and yet is to be had by the thousand in every nursery. Be the
+reason what it may, the common Juniper is one of the most desirable of
+evergreens, and is most undeservedly neglected. Even our botanists fail
+to do it justice, for Bentham describes it as a low shrub growing two
+feet, three feet, or four feet high. I quote from memory only; these may
+not be the words, but this is the sense of his description. He had
+evidently seen it on the chalk downs only, where such a portrait of it
+is exactly right. But in our sheltered uplands, in sandy soil, it is
+a small tree of noble aspect, twelve to twenty-eight feet high. In form
+it is extremely variable, for sometimes it shoots up on a single stem
+and looks like an Italian Cypress or like the upright Chinese Juniper,
+while at other times it will have two or more tall spires and a dense
+surrounding mass of lower growth, while in other cases it will be like a
+quantity of young trees growing close together, and yet the trees in all
+these varied forms may be nearly of an age.
+
+[Illustration: SCOTCH FIRS THROWN ON TO FROZEN WATER BY SNOWSTORM.]
+
+The action of snow is the reason of this unlikeness of habit. If, when
+young, the tree happens to have one main stem strong enough to shoot up
+alone, and if at the same time there come a sequence of winters without
+much snow, there will be the tall, straight, cypress-like tree. But if,
+as is more commonly the case, the growth is divided into a number of
+stems of nearly equal size, sooner or later they are sure to be laid
+down by snow. Such a winter storm as that of the end of December 1886
+was especially disastrous to Junipers. Snow came on early in the evening
+in this district, when the thermometer was barely at freezing point and
+there was no wind. It hung on the trees in clogging masses, with a
+lowering temperature that was soon below freezing. The snow still
+falling loaded them more and more; then came the fatal wind, and all
+through that night we heard the breaking trees. When morning came there
+were eighteen inches of snow on the ground, and all the trees that
+could be seen, mostly Scotch fir, seemed to be completely wrecked. Some
+were entirely stripped of branches, and stood up bare, like
+scaffold-poles. Until the snow was gone or half gone, no idea could be
+formed of the amount of damage done to shrubs; all were borne down and
+buried under the white rounded masses. A great Holly on the edge of the
+lawn, nearly thirty feet high and as much in spread, whose head in
+summer is crowned with a great tangle of Honeysuckle, had that crowned
+head lying on the ground weighted down by the frozen mass. But when the
+snow was gone and all the damage could be seen, the Junipers looked
+worse than anything. What had lately been shapely groups were lying
+perfectly flat, the bare-stemmed, leafless portions of the inner part of
+the group showing, and looking like a faggot of dry brushwood, that,
+having been stood upright, had burst its band and fallen apart in all
+directions. Some, whose stems had weathered many snowy winters, now had
+them broken short off half-way up; while others escaped with bare life,
+but with the thick, strong stem broken down, the heavy head lying on the
+ground, and the stem wrenched open at the break, like a half-untwisted
+rope. The great wild Junipers were the pride of our stretch of heathy
+waste just beyond the garden, and the scene of desolation was truly
+piteous, for though many of them already bore the marks of former
+accidents, never within our memory had there been such complete and
+comprehensive destruction.
+
+[Illustration: OLD JUNIPER, SHOWING FORMER INJURIES.]
+
+[Illustration: JUNIPER, LATELY WRECKED BY SNOWSTORM.]
+
+But now, ten years later, so great is their power of recovery, that
+there are the same Junipers, and, except in the case of those actually
+broken off, looking as well as ever. For those with many stems that were
+laid down flat have risen at the tips, and each tip looks like a
+vigorous young ten-year-old tree. What was formerly a massive,
+bushy-shaped Juniper, some twelve feet to fifteen feet high, now covers
+a space thirty feet across, and looks like a thick group of
+closely-planted, healthy young ones. The half broken-down trees have
+also risen at the tips, and are full of renewed vigour. Indeed, this
+breaking down and splitting open seems to give them a new energy, for
+individual trees that I have known well, and observed to look old and
+over-worn, and to all appearance on the downward road of life, after
+being broken and laid down by snow, have some years later, shot up again
+with every evidence of vigorous young life. It would be more easily
+accounted for if the branch rooted where it touched the ground, as so
+many trees and bushes will do; but as far as I have been able to
+observe, the Juniper does not "layer" itself. I have often thought I had
+found a fine young one fit for transplanting, but on clearing away the
+moss and fern at the supposed root have found that it was only the tip
+of a laid-down branch of a tree perhaps twelve feet away. In the case of
+one of our trees, among a group of laid-down and grown-up branches, one
+old central trunk has survived. It is now so thick and strong, and has
+so little top, that it will be likely to stand till it falls from sheer
+old age. Close to it is another, whose main stem was broken down about
+five feet from the ground; now, what was the head rests on the earth
+nine feet away, and a circle of its outspread branches has become a
+wholesome group of young upright growths, while at the place where the
+stem broke, the half-opened wrench still shows as clearly as on the day
+it was done.
+
+Among the many merits of the Juniper, its tenderly mysterious beauty of
+colouring is by no means the least; a colouring as delicately subtle in
+its own way as that of cloud or mist, or haze in warm, wet woodland. It
+has very little of positive green; a suspicion of warm colour in the
+shadowy hollows, and a blue-grey bloom of the tenderest quality
+imaginable on the outer masses of foliage. Each tiny, blade-like leaf
+has a band of dead, palest bluish-green colour on the upper surface,
+edged with a narrow line of dark green slightly polished; the back of
+the leaf is of the same full, rather dark green, with slight polish; it
+looks as if the green back had been brought up over the edge of the leaf
+to make the dark edging on the upper surface. The stems of the twigs are
+of a warm, almost foxy colour, becoming darker and redder in the
+branches. The tips of the twigs curl over or hang out on all sides
+towards the light, and the "set" of the individual twigs is full of
+variety. This arrangement of mixed colouring and texture, and infinitely
+various position of the spiny little leaves, allows the eye to
+penetrate unconsciously a little way into the mass, so that one sees as
+much tender shadow as actual leaf-surface, and this is probably the
+cause of the wonderfully delicate and, so to speak, intangible quality
+of colouring. Then, again, where there is a hollow place in a bush, or
+group, showing a cluster of half-dead stems, at first one cannot tell
+what the colour is, till with half-shut eyes one becomes aware of a
+dusky and yet luminous purple-grey.
+
+The merits of the Juniper are not yet done with, for throughout the
+winter (the time of growth of moss and lichen) the rugged-barked old
+stems are clothed with loveliest pale-green growths of a silvery
+quality. Standing before it, and trying to put the colour into words,
+one repeats, again and again, pale-green silver--palest silvery green!
+Where the lichen is old and dead it is greyer; every now and then there
+is a touch of the orange kind, and a little of the branched stag-horn
+pattern so common on the heathy ground. Here and there, as the trunk or
+branch is increasing in girth, the silvery, lichen-clad, rough outer
+bark has parted, and shows the smooth, dark-red inner bark; the outer
+covering still clinging over the opening, and looking like grey ribands
+slightly interlaced. Many another kind of tree-stem is beautiful in its
+winter dress, but it is difficult to find any so full of varied beauty
+and interest as that of the Juniper; it is one of the yearly feasts that
+never fails to delight and satisfy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MARCH
+
+Flowering bulbs -- Dog-tooth Violet -- Rock-garden -- Variety of
+Rhododendron foliage -- A beautiful old kind -- Suckers on grafted
+plants -- Plants for filling up the beds -- Heaths -- Andromedas -- Lady
+Fern -- _Lilium auratum_ -- Pruning Roses -- Training and tying climbing
+plants -- Climbing and free-growing Roses -- The Vine the best
+wall-covering -- Other climbers -- Wild Clematis -- Wild Rose.
+
+
+In early March many and lovely are the flowering bulbs, and among them a
+wealth of blue, the more precious that it is the colour least frequent
+among flowers. The blue of _Scilla sibirica_, like all blues that have
+in them a suspicion of green, has a curiously penetrating quality; the
+blue of _Scilla bifolia_ does not attack the eye so smartly. _Chionodoxa
+sardensis_ is of a full and satisfying colour, that is enhanced by the
+small space of clear white throat. A bed of it shows very little
+variation in colour. _Chionodoxa Lucilliæ_, on the other hand, varies
+greatly; one may pick out light and dark blue, and light and dark of
+almost lilac colour. The variety _C. gigantea_ is a fine plant. There
+are some pretty kinds of _Scilla bifolia_ that were raised by the Rev.
+J. G. Nelson of Aldborough, among them a tender flesh-colour and a good
+pink. _Leucojum vernum_, with its clear white flowers and polished
+dark-green leaves, is one of the gems of early March; and, flowering at
+the same time, no flower of the whole year can show a more splendid and
+sumptuous colour than the purple of _Iris reticulata_. Varieties have
+been raised, some larger, some nearer blue, and some reddish purple, but
+the type remains the best garden flower. _Iris stylosa_, in sheltered
+nooks open to the sun, when well established, gives flower from November
+till April, the strongest rush of bloom being about the third week in
+March. It is a precious plant in our southern counties, delicately
+scented, of a tender and yet full lilac-blue. The long ribbon-like
+leaves make handsome tufts, and the sheltered place it needs in our
+climate saves the flowers from the injury they receive on their native
+windy Algerian hills, where they are nearly always torn into tatters.
+
+What a charm there is about the common Dogtooth Violet; it is pretty
+everywhere, in borders, in the rock-garden, in all sorts of corners. But
+where it looks best with me is in a grassy place strewn with dead
+leaves, under young oaks, where the garden joins the copse. This is a
+part of the pleasure-ground that has been treated with some care, and
+has rewarded thought and labour with some success, so that it looks less
+as if it had been planned than as if it might have come naturally. At
+one point the lawn, trending gently upward, runs by grass paths into a
+rock-garden, planted mainly with dwarf shrubs. Here are Andromedas,
+Pernettyas, Gaultherias, and Alpine Rhododendron, and with them three
+favourites whose crushed leaves give a grateful fragrance, Sweet Gale,
+_Ledum palustre_, and _Rhododendron myrtifolium_. The rock part is
+unobtrusive; where the ground rises rather quickly are a couple of
+ridges made of large, long lumps of sandstone, half buried, and so laid
+as to give a look of natural stratification. Hardy Ferns are grateful
+for the coolness of their northern flanks, and Cyclamens are happy on
+the ledges. Beyond and above is the copse, or thin wood of young silver
+Birch and Holly, in summer clothed below with bracken, but now bristling
+with the bluish spears of Daffodils and the buds that will soon burst
+into bloom. The early Pyrenean Daffodil is already out, gleaming through
+the low-toned copse like lamps of pale yellow light. Where the rough
+path enters the birch copse is a cheerfully twinkling throng of the
+Dwarf Daffodil (_N. nanus_), looking quite at its best on its carpet of
+moss and fine grass and dead leaves. The light wind gives it a graceful,
+dancing movement, with an active spring about the upper part of the
+stalk. Some of the heavier trumpets not far off answer to the same wind
+with only a ponderous, leaden sort of movement.
+
+Farther along the garden joins the wood by a plantation of Rhododendrons
+and broad grassy paths, and farther still by a thicket of the
+free-growing Roses, some forming fountain-like clumps nine paces in
+diameter, and then again by masses of flowering shrubs, gradating by
+means of Sweetbriar, Water-elder, Dogwood, Medlar, and Thorn from garden
+to wild wood.
+
+Now that the Rhododendrons, planted nine years ago, have grown to a
+state and size of young maturity, it is interesting to observe how much
+they vary in foliage, and how clearly the leaves show the relative
+degree of relationship to their original parents, the wild mountain
+plants of Asia Minor and the United States. These, being two of the
+hardiest kinds, were the ones first chosen by hybridisers, and to these
+kinds we owe nearly all of the large numbers of beautiful garden
+Rhododendrons now in cultivation. The ones more nearly related to the
+wild _R. ponticum_ have long, narrow, shining dark-green leaves, while
+the varieties that incline more to the American _R. catawbiense_ have
+the leaves twice as broad, and almost rounded at the shoulder where they
+join the stalk; moreover, the surface of the leaf has a different
+texture, less polished, and showing a grain like morocco leather. The
+colour also is a lighter and more yellowish green, and the bush is not
+so densely branched. The leaves of all the kinds are inclined to hang
+down in cold weather, and this habit is more clearly marked in the
+_catawbiense_ varieties.
+
+There is one old kind called _Multum maculatum_--I dare say one of the
+earliest hybrids--for which I have a special liking. It is now despised
+by florists, because the flower is thin in texture and the petal
+narrow, and the truss not tightly filled. Nevertheless I find it quite
+the most beautiful Rhododendron as a cut flower, perhaps just because of
+these unorthodox qualities. And much as I admire the great bouncing
+beauties that are most justly the pride of their raisers, I hold that
+this most refined and delicate class of beauty equally deserves faithful
+championship. The flowers of this pretty old kind are of a delicate
+milk-white, and the lower petals are generously spotted with a
+rosy-scarlet of the loveliest quality. The leaves are the longest and
+narrowest and darkest green of any kind I know, making the bush
+conspicuously handsome in winter. I have to confess that it is a shy
+bloomer, and that it seems unwilling to flower in a young state, but I
+think of it as a thing so beautiful and desirable as to be worth waiting
+for.
+
+Within March, and before the busier season comes upon us, it is well to
+look out for the suckers that are likely to come on grafted plants. They
+may generally be detected by the typical _ponticum_ leaf, but if the
+foliage of a branch should be suspicious and yet doubtful, if on
+following the shoot down it is seen to come straight from the root and
+to have a redder bark than the rest, it may safely be taken for a
+robber. Of course the invading stock may be easily seen when in flower,
+but the good gardener takes it away before it has this chance of
+reproaching him. A lady visitor last year told me with some pride that
+she had a most wonderful Rhododendron in bloom; all the flower in the
+middle was crimson, with a ring of purple-flowered branches outside. I
+am afraid she was disappointed when I offered condolence instead of
+congratulation, and had to tell her that the phenomenon was not uncommon
+among neglected bushes.
+
+When my Rhododendron beds were first planted, I followed the usual
+practice of filling the outer empty spaces of the clumps with hardy
+Heaths. Perhaps it is still the best or one of the best ways to begin
+when the bushes are quite young; for if planted the right distance
+apart--seven to nine feet--there must be large bare spaces between; but
+now that they have filled the greater part of the beds, I find that the
+other plants I tried are more to my liking. These are, foremost of all,
+_Andromeda Catesbæi_, then Lady Fern, and then the dwarf _Rhododendron
+myrtifolium_. The main spaces between the young bushes I plant with
+_Cistus laurifolius_, a perfectly hardy kind; this grows much faster
+than the Rhododendrons, and soon fills the middle spaces; by the time
+that the best of its life is over--for it is a short-lived bush--the
+Rhododendrons will be wanting all the space. Here and there in the inner
+spaces I put groups of _Lilium auratum_, a Lily that thrives in a peaty
+bed, and that looks its best when growing through other plants;
+moreover, when the Rhododendrons are out of flower, the Lily, whose
+blooming season is throughout the late summer and autumn, gives a new
+beauty and interest to that part of the garden.
+
+The time has come for pruning Roses, and for tying up and training the
+plants that clothe wall and fence and pergola. And this sets one
+thinking about climbing and rambling plants, and all their various ways
+and wants, and of how best to use them. One of my boundaries to a road
+is a fence about nine feet high, wall below and close oak paling above.
+It is planted with free-growing Roses of several types--Aimée Vibert,
+Madame Alfred Carrière, Reine Olga de Wurtemburg, and Bouquet d'Or, the
+strongest of the Dijon teas. Then comes a space of _Clematis Montana_
+and _Clematis flammula_, and then more Roses--Madame Plantier, Emélie
+Plantier (a delightful Rose to cut), and some of the grand Sweetbriars
+raised by Lord Penzance.
+
+From midsummer onward these Roses are continually cut for flower, and
+yield an abundance of quite the most ornamental class of bloom. For I
+like to have cut Roses arranged in a large, free way, with whole
+branches three feet or four feet long, easy to have from these
+free-growing kinds, that throw out branches fifteen feet long in one
+season, even on our poor, sandy soil, that contains no particle of that
+rich loam that Roses love. I think this same Reine Olga, the grand
+grower from which have come our longest and largest prunings, must be
+quite the best evergreen Rose, for it holds its full clothing of
+handsome dark-green leaves right through the winter. It seems to like
+hard pruning. I have one on a part of the pergola, but have no pleasure
+from it, as it has rushed up to the top, and nothing shows but a few
+naked stems.
+
+[Illustration: GARDEN DOOR-WAY WREATHED WITH CLEMATIS GRAVEOLENS.]
+
+[Illustration: COTTAGE PORCH WREATHED WITH THE DOUBLE WHITE ROSE (_R.
+alba_).]
+
+One has to find out how to use all these different Roses. How often one
+sees the wrong Roses used as climbers on the walls of a house. I have
+seen a Gloire de Dijon covering the side of a house with a profitless
+reticulation of bare stem, and a few leaves and flowers looking into the
+gutter just under the edge of the roof. What are generally recommended
+as climbing Roses are too ready to ramp away, leaving bare, leggy growth
+where wall-clothing is desired. One of the best is climbing Aimée
+Vibert, for with very little pruning it keeps well furnished nearly to
+the ground, and with its graceful clusters of white bloom and
+healthy-looking, polished leaves is always one of the prettiest of
+Roses. Its only fault is that it does not shed its dead petals, but
+retains the whole bloom in dead brown clusters.
+
+But if a Rose wishes to climb, it should be accommodated with a suitable
+place. That excellent old Rose, the Dundee Rambler, or the still
+prettier Garland Rose, will find a way up a Holly-tree, and fling out
+its long wreaths of tenderly-tinted bloom; and there can be no better
+way of using the lovely Himalayan _R. Brunonis_, with its long, almost
+blue leaves and wealth of milk-white flower. A common Sweetbriar will
+also push up among the branches of some dark evergreen, Yew or Holly,
+and throw out aloft its scented branches and rosy bloom, and look its
+very best.
+
+But some of these same free Roses are best of all if left in a clear
+space to grow exactly as they will without any kind of support or
+training. So placed, they grow into large rounded groups. Every year,
+just after the young laterals on the last year's branches have flowered,
+they throw out vigorous young rods that arch over as they complete their
+growth, and will be the flower-bearers of the year to come.
+
+Two kinds of Roses of rambling growth that are rather tender, but
+indispensable for beauty, are Fortune's Yellow and the Banksias. Pruning
+the free Roses is always rough work for the hands and clothes, but of
+all Roses I know, the worst to handle is Fortune's Yellow. The prickles
+are hooked back in a way that no care or ingenuity can escape; and
+whether it is their shape and power of cruel grip, or whether they have
+anything of a poisonous quality, I do not know; but whereas hands
+scratched and torn by Roses in general heal quickly, the wounds made by
+Fortune's Yellow are much more painful and much slower to get well. I
+knew an old labourer who died of a rose-prick. He used to work about the
+roads, and at cleaning the ditches and mending the hedges. For some time
+I did not see him, and when I asked another old countryman, "What's gone
+o' Master Trussler?" the answer was, "He's dead--died of a canker-bush."
+The wild Dog-rose is still the "canker" in the speech of the old people,
+and a thorn or prickle is still a "bush." A Dog-rose prickle had gone
+deep into the old hedger's hand--a "bush" more or less was nothing to
+him, but the neglected little wound had become tainted with some
+impurity, blood-poisoning had set in, and my poor old friend had truly
+enough "died of a canker-bush."
+
+The flowering season of Fortune's Yellow is a very short one, but it
+comes so early, and the flowers have such incomparable beauty, and are
+so little like those of any other Rose, that its value is quite without
+doubt. Some of the Tea Roses approach it in its pink and copper
+colouring, but the loose, open, rather flaunting form of the flower, and
+the twisted set of the petals, display the colour better than is
+possible in any of the more regular-shaped Roses. It is a good plan to
+grow it through some other wall shrub, as it soon gets bare below, and
+the early maturing flowering tips are glad to be a little sheltered by
+the near neighbourhood of other foliage.
+
+I do not think that there is any other Rose that has just the same rich
+butter colour as the Yellow Banksian, and this unusual colouring is the
+more distinct because each little Rose in the cluster is nearly evenly
+coloured all over, besides being in such dense bunches. The season of
+bloom is very short, but the neat, polished foliage is always pleasant
+to see throughout the year. The white kind and the larger white are both
+lovely as to the individual bloom, but they flower so much more shyly
+that the yellow is much the better garden plant.
+
+But the best of all climbing or rambling plants, whether for wall or
+arbour or pergola, is undoubtedly the Grape-Vine. Even when trimly
+pruned and trained for fruit-bearing on an outer wall it is an admirable
+picture of leafage and fruit-cluster; but to have it in fullest beauty
+it must ramp at will, for it is only when the fast-growing branches are
+thrown out far and wide that it fairly displays its graceful vigour and
+the generous magnificence of its incomparable foliage.
+
+The hardy Chasselas, known in England by the rather misleading name
+Royal Muscadine, is one of the best, both for fruit and foliage. The
+leaves are of moderate size, with clearly serrated edges and that
+strongly waved outline that gives the impression of powerful build, and
+is, in fact, a mechanical contrivance intended to stiffen the structure.
+The colour of the leaves is a fresh, lively green, and in autumn they
+are prettily marbled with yellow. Where a very large-leaved Vine is
+wanted nothing is handsomer than the North American _Vitis Labrusca_ or
+the Asiatic _Vitis Coignettii_, whose autumn leaves are gorgeously
+coloured. For a place that demands more delicate foliage there is the
+Parsley-Vine, that has a delightful look of refinement, and another that
+should not be forgotten is the Claret-Vine, with autumnal colouring of
+almost scarlet and purple, and abundance of tightly clustered black
+fruit, nearly blue with a heavy bloom.
+
+Many an old house and garden can show the far-rambling power of the
+beautiful _Wistaria Chinensis_, and of the large-leaved _Aristolochia
+Sipho_, one of the best plants for covering a pergola, and of the
+varieties of _Ampelopsis_, near relations of the Grape-Vine. The limit
+of these notes only admits of mention of some of the more important
+climbers; but among these the ever-delightful white Jasmine must have a
+place. It will ramble far and fast if it has its own way, but then gives
+little flower; but by close winter pruning it can be kept full of bloom
+and leaf nearly to the ground.
+
+[Illustration: WILD HOP, ENTWINING WORMWOOD AND COW-PARSNIP.]
+
+The woods and hedges have also their beautiful climbing plants.
+Honeysuckle in suitable conditions will ramble to great heights--in this
+district most noticeable in tall Hollies and Junipers as well as in high
+hedges. The wild Clematis is most frequent on the chalk, where it laces
+together whole hedges and rushes up trees, clothing them in July with
+long wreaths of delicate bloom, and in September with still more
+conspicuous feathery seed. For rapid growth perhaps no English plant
+outstrips the Hop, growing afresh from the root every year, and almost
+equalling the Vine in beauty of leaf. The two kinds of wild Bryony are
+also herbaceous climbers of rapid growth, and among the most beautiful
+of our hedge plants.
+
+The wild Roses run up to great heights in hedge and thicket, and never
+look so well as when among the tangles of mixed growth of wild forest
+land or clambering through some old gnarled thorn-tree. The common
+Brambles are also best seen in these forest groups; these again in form
+of leaf show somewhat of a vine-like beauty.
+
+In the end of March, or at any time during the month when the wind is in
+the east or north-east, all increase and development of vegetation
+appears to cease. As things are, so they remain. Plants that are in
+flower retain their bloom, but, as it were, under protest. A kind of
+sullen dulness pervades all plant life. Sweet-scented shrubs do not give
+off their fragrance; even the woodland moss and earth and dead leaves
+withhold their sweet, nutty scent. The surface of the earth has an arid,
+infertile look; a slight haze of an ugly grey takes the colour out of
+objects in middle distance, and seems to rob the flowers of theirs, or
+to put them out of harmony with all things around. But a day comes, or,
+perhaps, a warmer night, when the wind, now breathing gently from the
+south-west, puts new life into all growing things. A marvellous change
+is wrought in a few hours. A little warm rain has fallen, and plants,
+invisible before, and doubtless still underground, spring into glad
+life.
+
+What an innocent charm there is about many of the true spring flowers.
+Primroses of many colours are now in bloom, but the prettiest, this
+year, is a patch of an early blooming white one, grouped with a delicate
+lilac. Then comes _Omphalodes verna_, with its flowers of brilliant blue
+and foliage of brightest green, better described by its pretty
+north-country name, Blue-eyed Mary. There are Violets of many colours,
+but daintiest of all is the pale-blue St. Helena; whether it is the
+effect of its delicate colouring, or whether it has really a better
+scent than other varieties of the common Violet, I cannot say, but it
+always seems to have a more refined fragrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+APRIL
+
+Woodland spring flowers -- Daffodils in the copse -- Grape Hyacinths and
+other spring bulbs -- How best to plant them -- Flowering shrubs --
+Rock-plants -- Sweet scents of April -- Snowy Mespilus, Marsh Marigolds,
+and other spring flowers -- Primrose garden -- Pollen of Scotch Fir --
+Opening seed-pods of Fir and Gorse -- Auriculas -- Tulips -- Small
+shrubs for rock-garden -- Daffodils as cut flowers -- Lent Hellebores --
+Primroses -- Leaves of wild Arum.
+
+
+In early April there is quite a wealth of flower among plants that
+belong half to wood and half to garden. _Epimedium pinnatum_, with its
+delicate, orchid-like spike of pale-yellow bloom, flowers with its last
+year's leaves, but as soon as it is fully out the young leaves rush up,
+as if hastening to accompany the flowers. _Dentaria pinnata_, a woodland
+plant of Switzerland and Austria, is one of the handsomest of the
+white-flowered _cruciferæ_, with well-filled heads of twelve to fifteen
+flowers, and palmate leaves of freshest green. Hard by, and the best
+possible plant to group with it, is the lovely Virginian Cowslip
+(_Mertensia virginica_), the very embodiment of the freshness of early
+spring. The sheaf of young leafage comes almost black out of the
+ground, but as the leaves develop, their dull, lurid colouring changes
+to a full, pale green of a curious texture, quite smooth, and yet
+absolutely unreflecting. The dark colouring of the young leaves now only
+remains as a faint tracery of veining on the backs of the leaves and
+stalks, and at last dies quite away as the bloom expands. The flower is
+of a rare and beautiful quality of colour, hard to describe--a
+rainbow-flower of purple, indigo, full and pale blue, and daintiest
+lilac, full of infinite variety and indescribable charm. The flowers are
+in terminal clusters, richly filled; lesser clusters springing from the
+axils of the last few leaves and joining with the topmost one to form a
+gracefully drooping head. The lurid colouring of the young leaves is
+recalled in the flower-stems and calix, and enhances the colour effect
+of the whole. The flower of the common Dog-tooth Violet is over, but the
+leaves have grown larger and handsomer. They look as if, originally of a
+purplish-red colour, some liquid had been dropped on them, making
+confluent pools of pale green, lightest at the centre of the drop. The
+noblest plant of the same family (_Erythronium giganteum_) is now in
+flower--a striking and beautiful wood plant, with turn-cap shaped
+flowers of palest straw-colour, almost white, and large leaves, whose
+markings are not drop-like as in the more familiar kind, but are
+arranged in a regular sequence of bold splashings, reminding one of a
+_Maranta_. The flowers, single or in pairs, rise on stems a foot or
+fifteen inches high; the throat is beautifully marked with flames of
+rich bay on a yellow ground, and the handsome group of golden-anthered
+stamens and silvery pistil make up a flower of singular beauty and
+refinement. That valuable Indian Primrose, _P. denticulata_, is another
+fine plant for the cool edge or shady hollows of woodland in rather
+good, deep soil.
+
+But the glory of the copse just now consists in the great stretches of
+Daffodils. Through the wood run shallow, parallel hollows, the lowest
+part of each depression some nine paces apart. Local tradition says they
+are the remains of old pack-horse roads; they occur frequently in the
+forest-like heathery uplands of our poor-soiled, sandy land, running,
+for the most part, three or four together, almost evenly side by side.
+The old people account for this by saying that when one track became too
+much worn another was taken by its side. Where these pass through the
+birch copse the Daffodils have been planted in the shallow hollows of
+the old ways, in spaces of some three yards broad by thirty or forty
+yards long--one kind at a time. Two of such tracks, planted with
+_Narcissus princeps_ and _N. Horsfieldi_, are now waving rivers of
+bloom, in many lights and accidents of cloud and sunshine full of
+pictorial effect. The planting of Daffodils in this part of the copse is
+much better than in any other portions where there were no guiding
+track-ways, and where they were planted in haphazard sprinklings.
+
+[Illustration: DAFFODILS IN THE COPSE.]
+
+The Grape Hyacinths are now in full bloom. It is well to avoid the
+common one (_Muscari racemosum_), at any rate in light soils, where it
+becomes a troublesome weed. One of the best is _M. conicum_; this, with
+the upright-leaved _M. botryoides_, and its white variety, are the best
+for general use, but the Plume Hyacinth, which flowers later, should
+have a place. _Ornithogalum nutans_ is another of the bulbous plants
+that, though beautiful in flower, becomes so pestilent a weed that it is
+best excluded.
+
+Where and how the early flowering bulbs had best be planted is a
+question of some difficulty. Perhaps the mixed border, where they are
+most usually put, is the worst place of all, for when in flower they
+only show as forlorn little patches of bloom rather far apart, and when
+their leaves die down, leaving their places looking empty, the ruthless
+spade or trowel stabs into them when it is desired to fill the space
+with some other plant. Moreover, when the border is manured and partly
+dug in the autumn, it is difficult to avoid digging up the bulbs just
+when they are in full root-growth. Probably the best plan is to devote a
+good space of cool bank to small bulbs and hardy ferns, planting the
+ferns in such groups as will leave good spaces for the bulbs; then as
+their leaves are going the fern fronds are developing and will cover the
+whole space. Another way is to have them among any groups of newly
+planted small shrubs, to be left there for spring blooming until the
+shrubs have covered their allotted space.
+
+Many flowering shrubs are in beauty. _Andromeda floribunda_ still holds
+its persistent bloom that has endured for nearly two months. The thick,
+drooping, tassel-like bunches of bloom of _Andromeda japonica_ are just
+going over. _Magnolia stellata_, a compact bush some five feet high and
+wide, is white with the multitude of its starry flowers; individually
+they look half double, having fourteen to sixteen petals. _Forsythia
+suspensa_, with its graceful habit and tender yellow flower, is a much
+better shrub than _F. viridissima_, though, strangely enough, that is
+the one most commonly planted. Corchorus, with its bright-yellow balls,
+the fine old rosy Ribes, the Japan Quinces and their salmon-coloured
+relative _Pyrus Mauleii_, _Spiræa Thunbergi_, with its neat habit and
+myriads of tiny flowers, these make frequent points of beauty and
+interest.
+
+In the rock-garden, _Cardamine trifoliata_ and _Hutchinsia alpina_ are
+conspicuous from their pure white flowers and neat habit; both have
+leaves of darkest green, as if the better to show off the bloom.
+_Ranunculus montanus_ fringes the cool base of a large stone; its whole
+height not over three inches, though its bright-yellow flowers are
+larger than field buttercups. The surface of the petals is curiously
+brilliant, glistening and flashing like glass. _Corydalis capnoides_ is
+a charming rock-plant, with flowers of palest sulphur colour, one of the
+neatest and most graceful of its family.
+
+[Illustration: MAGNOLIA STELLATA.]
+
+[Illustration: DAFFODILS AMONG JUNIPERS WHERE GARDEN JOINS COPSE.]
+
+Border plants are pushing up vigorous green growth; finest of all are
+the Veratrums, with their bold, deeply-plaited leaves of brilliant
+green. Delphiniums and Oriental Poppies have also made strong foliage,
+and Daylilies are conspicuous from their fresh masses of pale greenery.
+Flag Iris have their leaves three parts grown, and Pæonies are a foot or
+more high, in all varieties of rich red colouring. It is a good plan,
+when they are in beds or large groups, to plant the dark-flowered
+Wallflowers among them, their colour making a rich harmony with the reds
+of the young Pæony growths.
+
+There are balmy days in mid-April, when the whole garden is fragrant
+with Sweetbriar. It is not "fast of its smell," as Bacon says of the
+damask rose, but gives it so lavishly that one cannot pass near a plant
+without being aware of its gracious presence. Passing upward through the
+copse, the warm air draws a fragrance almost as sweet, but infinitely
+more subtle, from the fresh green of the young birches; it is like a
+distant whiff of Lily of the Valley. Higher still the young leafage of
+the larches gives a delightful perfume of the same kind. It seems as if
+it were the office of these mountain trees, already nearest the high
+heaven, to offer an incense of praise for their new life.
+
+Few plants will grow under Scotch fir, but a notable exception is the
+Whortleberry, now a sheet of brilliant green, and full of its
+arbutus-like, pink-tinged flower. This plant also has a pleasant scent
+in the mass, difficult to localise, but coming in whiffs as it will.
+
+The snowy Mespilus (_Amelanchier_) shows like puffs of smoke among the
+firs and birches, full of its milk-white, cherry-like bloom--a true
+woodland shrub or small tree. It loves to grow in a thicket of other
+trees, and to fling its graceful sprays about through their branches. It
+is a doubtful native, but naturalised and plentiful in the neighbouring
+woods. As seen in gardens, it is usually a neat little tree of shapely
+form, but it is more beautiful when growing at its own will in the high
+woods.
+
+Marshy hollows in the valleys are brilliant with Marsh Marigold (_Caltha
+palustris_); damp meadows have them in plenty, but they are largest and
+handsomest in the alder-swamps of our valley bottoms, where their great
+luscious clumps rise out of pools of black mud and water.
+
+_Adonis vernalis_ is one of the brightest flowers of the middle of
+April, the flowers looking large for the size of the plant. The
+bright-yellow, mostly eight-petalled, blooms are comfortably seated in
+dense, fennel-like masses of foliage. It makes strong tufts, that are
+the better for division every four years. The spring Bitter-vetch
+(_Orobus vernus_) blooms at the same time, a remarkably clean-looking
+plant, with its cheerful red and purple blossom and handsomely divided
+leaves. It is one of the toughest of plants to divide, the mass of
+black root is like so much wire. It is a good plan with plants that have
+such roots, when dividing-time comes, to take the clumps to a strong
+bench or block and cut them through at the crown with a sharp
+cold-chisel and hammer. Another of the showiest families of plants of
+the time is _Doronicum_. _D. Austriacum_ is the earliest, but it is
+closely followed by the fine _D. Plantagineum_. The large form of wood
+Forget-me-not (_Myosotis sylvatica major_) is in sheets of bloom,
+opening pink and changing to a perfect blue. This is a great improvement
+on the old smaller one. Grouped with it, as an informal border, and in
+patches running through and among its clumps, is the Foam-flower
+(_Tiarella cordifolia_), whose flower in the mass looks like the wreaths
+of foam tossed aside by a mountain torrent. By the end of the month the
+Satin-leaf (_Heuchera Richardsoni_) is pushing up its richly-coloured
+leaves, of a strong bronze-red, gradating to bronze-green at the outer
+edge. The beauty of the plant is in the colour and texture of the
+foliage. To encourage full leaf growth the flower stems should be
+pinched out, and as they push up rather persistently, they should be
+looked over every few days for about a fortnight.
+
+[Illustration: TIARELLA CORDIFOLIA. (_Height, 12 inches._)]
+
+[Illustration: HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY. (_See page 105._) (_Height, 9
+feet._)]
+
+The Primrose garden is now in beauty, but I have so much to say about it
+that I have given it a chapter to itself towards the end of the book.
+
+The Scotch firs are shedding their pollen; a flowering branch shaken or
+struck with a stick throws out a pale-yellow cloud. Heavy rain will
+wash it out, so that after a storm the sides of the roads and paths look
+as if powdered sulphur had been washed up in drifts. The sun has gained
+great power, and on still bright days sharp _snicking_ sounds are to be
+heard from the firs. The dry cones of last year are opening, and the
+flattened seeds with their paper-like edges are fluttering down. Another
+sound, much like it but just a shade sharper and more _staccato_, is
+heard from the Gorse bushes, whose dry pods are flying open and letting
+fall the hard, polished, little bean-like seeds.
+
+Border Auriculas are making a brave show. Nothing in the flower year is
+more interesting than a bed of good seedlings of the Alpine class. I
+know nothing better for pure beauty of varied colouring among early
+flowers. Except in varieties of _Salpiglossis_, such rich gradation of
+colour, from pale lilac to rich purple, and from rosy pink to deepest
+crimson, is hardly to be found in any one family of plants. There are
+varieties of cloudings of smoky-grey, sometimes approaching black,
+invading, and at the same time enhancing, the purer colours, and numbers
+of shades of half-tones of red and purple, such as are comprised within
+the term _murrey_ of heraldry, and tender blooms of one colour, sulphurs
+and milk-whites--all with the admirable texture and excellent perfume
+that belong to the "Bear's-ears" of old English gardens. For practical
+purposes the florist's definition of a good Auricula is of little value;
+that is for the show-table, and, as Bacon says, "Nothing to the true
+pleasure of a garden." The qualities to look for in the bed of seedlings
+are not the narrowing ones of proportion of eye to tube, of exact circle
+in the circumference of the individual pip, and so on, but to notice
+whether the plant has a handsome look and stands up well, and is a
+delightful and beautiful thing as a whole.
+
+[Illustration: TULIPA RETROFLEXA.]
+
+[Illustration: LATE SINGLE TULIPS, BREEDERS AND BYBLOEMEN.]
+
+Tulips are the great garden flowers in the last week of April and
+earliest days of May. In this plant also the rule of the show-table is
+no sure guide to garden value; for the show Tulip, beautiful though it
+is, is of one class alone--namely, the best of the "broken" varieties of
+the self-coloured seedlings called "breeders." These seedlings, after
+some years of cultivation, change or "break" into a variation in which
+the original colouring is only retained in certain flames or feathers of
+colour, on a ground of either white or yellow. If the flames in each
+petal are symmetrical and well arranged, according to the rules laid
+down by the florist, it is a good flower; it receives a name, and
+commands a certain price. If, on the other hand, the markings are
+irregular, however beautiful the colouring, the flower is comparatively
+worthless, and is "thrown into mixture." The kinds that are the grandest
+in gardens are ignored by the florist. One of the best for graceful and
+delicate beauty is _Tulipa retroflexa_, of a soft lemon-yellow colour,
+and twisted and curled petals; then Silver Crown, a white flower with a
+delicate picotee-like thread of scarlet along the edge of the sharply
+pointed and reflexed petals. A variety of this called Sulphur Crown is
+only a little less beautiful. Then there is Golden Crown, also with
+pointed petals and occasional threadings of scarlet. Nothing is more
+gorgeous than the noble _Gesneriana major_, with its great chalice of
+crimson-scarlet and pools of blue in the inner base of each petal. The
+gorgeously flamed Parrot Tulips are indispensable, and the large double
+Yellow Rose, and the early double white La Candeur. Of the later kinds
+there are many of splendid colouring and noble port; conspicuous among
+them are _Reine d'Espagne_, _Couleur de vin_, and _Bleu celeste_. There
+are beautiful colourings of scarlet, crimson, yellow, chocolate, and
+purple among the "breeders," as well as among the so-called _bizarres_
+and _bybloemen_ that comprise the show kinds.
+
+The best thing now in the rock-garden is a patch of some twenty plants
+of _Arnebia echioides_, always happy in our poor, dry soil. It is of the
+Borage family, a native of Armenia. It flowers in single or
+double-branching spikes of closely-set flowers of a fine yellow. Just
+below each indentation of the five-lobed corolla is a spot which looks
+black by contrast, but is of a very dark, rich, velvety brown. The day
+after the flower has expanded the spot has faded to a moderate brown,
+the next day to a faint tinge, and on the fourth day it is gone. The
+legend, accounting for the spots, says that Mahomet touched the flower
+with the tips of his fingers, hence its English name of Prophet-flower.
+
+The upper parts of the rock-garden that are beyond hand-reach are
+planted with dwarf shrubs, many of them sweetly scented either as to
+leaf or flower--_Gaultherias_, Sweet Gale, Alpine Rhododendron,
+_Skimmias_, _Pernettyas_, _Ledums_, and hardy Daphnes. _Daphne pontica_
+now gives off delicious wafts of fragrance, intensely sweet in the
+evening.
+
+In March and April Daffodils are the great flowers for house decoration,
+coming directly after the Lent Hellebores. Many people think these
+beautiful late-flowering Hellebores useless for cutting because they
+live badly in water. But if properly prepared they live quite well, and
+will remain ten days in beauty. Directly they are cut, and immediately
+before putting in water, the stalks should be slit up three or four
+inches, or according to their length, and then put in deep, so that the
+water comes nearly up to the flowers; and so they should remain, in a
+cool place, for some hours, or for a whole night, after which they can
+be arranged for the room. Most of them are inclined to droop; it is the
+habit of the plant in growth; this may be corrected by arranging them
+with something stiff like Box or Berberis.
+
+_Anemone fulgens_ is a grand cutting flower, and looks well with its own
+leaves only or with flowering twigs of Laurustinus. Then there are
+Pansies, delightful things in a room, but they should be cut in whole
+branches of leafy stem and flower and bud. At first the growths are
+short and only suit dish-shaped things, but as the season goes on they
+grow longer and bolder, and graduate first into bowls and then into
+upright glasses. I think Pansies are always best without mixture of
+other flowers, and in separate colours, or only in such varied tints as
+make harmonies of one class of colour at a time.
+
+The big yellow and white bunch Primroses are delightful room flowers,
+beautiful, and of sweetest scent. When full-grown the flower-stalks are
+ten inches long and more. Among the seedlings there are always a certain
+number that are worthless. These are pounced upon as soon as they show
+their bloom, and cut up for greenery to go with the cut flowers, leaving
+the root-stock with all its middle foliage, and cutting away the roots
+and any rough outside leaves.
+
+When the first Daffodils are out and suitable greenery is not abundant
+in the garden (for it does not do to cut their own blades), I bring home
+handfuls of the wild Arum leaves, so common in roadside hedges, grasping
+the whole plant close to the ground; then a steady pull breaks it away
+from the tuber, and you have a fine long-stalked sheaf of leafage held
+together by its own underground stem. This should be prepared like the
+Lent Hellebores, by putting it deep in water for a time. I always think
+the trumpet Daffodils look better with this than with any other kind of
+foliage. When the wild Arum is full-grown the leaves are so large and
+handsome that they do quite well to accompany the white Arum flowers
+from the greenhouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MAY
+
+Cowslips -- Morells -- Woodruff -- Felling oak timber -- Trillium and
+other wood-plants -- Lily of the Valley naturalised -- Rock-wall flowers
+-- Two good wall-shrubs -- Queen wasps -- Rhododendrons -- Arrangement
+for colour -- Separate colour-groups -- Difficulty of choosing -- Hardy
+Azaleas -- Grouping flowers that bloom together -- Guelder-rose as
+climber -- The garden-wall door -- The Pæony garden -- Moutans -- Pæony
+varieties -- Species desirable for garden.
+
+
+While May is still young, Cowslips are in beauty on the chalk lands a
+few miles distant, but yet within pleasant reach. They are finest of all
+in orchards, where the grass grows tall and strong under the half-shade
+of the old apple-trees, some of the later kinds being still loaded with
+bloom. The blooming of the Cowslip is the signal for a search for the
+Morell, one of the very best of the edible fungi. It grows in open woods
+or where the undergrowth has not yet grown high, and frequently in old
+parks and pastures near or under elms. It is quite unlike any other
+fungus; shaped like a tall egg, with the pointed end upwards, on a
+short, hollow stalk, and looking something like a sponge. It has a
+delicate and excellent flavour, and is perfectly wholesome.
+
+The pretty little Woodruff is in flower; what scent is so delicate as
+that of its leaves? They are almost sweeter when dried, each little
+whorl by itself, with the stalk cut closely away above and below. It is
+a pleasant surprise to come upon these fragrant little stars between the
+leaves of a book. The whole plant revives memories of rambles in
+Bavarian woodlands, and of Mai-trank, that best of the "cup" tribe of
+pleasant drinks, whose flavour is borrowed from its flowering tips.
+
+In the first week in May oak-timber is being felled. The wood is
+handsomer, from showing the grain better, when it is felled in the
+winter, but it is delayed till now because of the value of the bark for
+tanning, and just now the fast-rising sap makes the bark strip easily. A
+heavy fall is taking place in the fringes of a large wood of old Scotch
+fir. Where the oaks grow there is a blue carpet of wild Hyacinth; the
+pathway is a slightly hollowed lane, so that the whole sheet of flower
+right and left is nearly on a level with the eye, and looks like solid
+pools of blue. The oaks not yet felled are putting forth their leaves of
+golden bronze. The song of the nightingale and the ring of the woodman's
+axe gain a rich musical quality from the great fir wood. Why a wood of
+Scotch fir has this wonderful property of a kind of musical
+reverberation I do not know; but so it is. Any sound that occurs within
+it is, on a lesser scale, like a sound in a cathedral. The tree itself
+when struck gives a musical note. Strike an oak or an elm on the trunk
+with a stick, and the sound is mute; strike a Scotch fir, and it is a
+note of music.
+
+[Illustration: TRILLIUM IN THE WILD GARDEN.]
+
+In the copse are some prosperous patches of the beautiful North American
+Wood-lily (_Trillium grandiflorum_). It likes a bed of deep leaf-soil on
+levels or cool slopes in woodland, where its large white flowers and
+whorls of handsome leaves look quite at home. Beyond it are widely
+spreading patches of Solomon's Seal and tufts of the Wood-rush (_Luzula
+sylvatica_), showing by their happy vigour how well they like their
+places, while the natural woodland carpet of moss and dead leaves puts
+the whole together. Higher in the copse the path runs through stretches
+of the pretty little _Smilacina bifolia_, and the ground beyond this is
+a thick bed of Whortleberry, filling all the upper part of the copse
+under oak and birch and Scotch fir. The little flower-bells of the
+Whortleberry have already given place to the just-formed fruit, which
+will ripen in July, and be a fine feast for the blackbirds.
+
+Other parts of the copse, where there was no Heath or Whortleberry, were
+planted thinly with the large Lily of the Valley. It has spread and
+increased and become broad sheets of leaf and bloom, from which
+thousands of flowers can be gathered without making gaps, or showing
+that any have been removed; when the bloom is over the leaves still
+stand in handsome masses till they are hidden by the fast-growing
+bracken. They do not hurt each other, as it seems that the Lily of the
+Valley, having the roots running just underground, while the fern-roots
+are much deeper, the two occupy their respective _strata_ in perfect
+good fellowship. The neat little _Smilacina_ is a near relation of the
+Lily of the Valley; its leaves are of an even more vivid green, and its
+little modest spikes of white flower are charming. It loves the poor,
+sandy soil, and increases in it fast, but will have nothing to say to
+clay. A very delicate and beautiful North American fern (_Dicksonia
+punctilobulata_) proves a good colonist in the copse. It spreads rapidly
+by creeping roots, and looks much like our native _Thelipteris_, but is
+of a paler green colour. In the rock-garden the brightest patches of
+bloom are shown by the tufts of dwarf Wallflowers; of these,
+_Cheiranthus alpinus_ has a strong lemon colour that is of great
+brilliancy in the mass, and _C. Marshalli_ is of a dark orange colour,
+equally powerful. The curiously-tinted _C. mutabilis_, as its name
+implies, changes from a light mahogany colour when just open, first to
+crimson and then to purple. In length of life _C. alpinus_ and _C.
+Marshalli_ are rather more than biennials, and yet too short-lived to be
+called true perennials; cuttings of one year flower the next, and are
+handsome tufts the year after, but are scarcely worth keeping longer.
+_C. mutabilis_ is longer lived, especially if the older growths are cut
+right away, when the tuft will generally spring into vigorous new life.
+
+_Orobus aurantiacus_ is a beautiful plant not enough grown, one of the
+handsomest of the Pea family, with flowers of a fine orange colour, and
+foliage of a healthy-looking golden-green. A striking and handsome plant
+in the upper part of the rockery is _Othonna cheirifolia_; its aspect is
+unusual and interesting, with its bunches of thick, blunt-edged leaves
+of blue-grey colouring, and large yellow daisy flowers. There is a
+pretty group of the large white Thrift, and near it a spreading carpet
+of blue Veronica and some of the splendid gentian-blue _Phacelia
+campanularia_, a valuable annual for filling any bare patches of rockery
+where its brilliant colouring will suit the neighbouring plants, or,
+best of all, in patches among dwarf ferns, where its vivid blue would be
+seen to great advantage.
+
+Two wall-shrubs have been conspicuously beautiful during May; the
+Mexican Orange-flower (_Choisya ternata_) has been smothered in its
+white bloom, so closely resembling orange-blossom. With a slight winter
+protection of fir boughs it seems quite at home in our hot, dry soil,
+grows fast, and is very easy to propagate by layers. When cut, it lasts
+for more than a week in water. _Piptanthus nepalensis_ has also made a
+handsome show, with its abundant yellow, pea-shaped bloom and deep-green
+trefoil leaves. The dark-green stems have a slight bloom on a
+half-polished surface, and a pale ring at each joint gives them somewhat
+the look of bamboos.
+
+Now is the time to look out for the big queen wasps and to destroy as
+many as possible. They seem to be specially fond of the flowers of two
+plants, the large perennial Cornflower (_Centaurea montana_) and the
+common Cotoneaster. I have often secured a dozen in a few minutes on one
+or other of these plants, first knocking them down with a battledore.
+
+Now, in the third week of May, Rhododendrons are in full bloom on the
+edge of the copse. The plantation was made about nine years ago, in one
+of the regions where lawn and garden were to join the wood. During the
+previous blooming season the best nurseries were visited and careful
+observations made of colouring, habit, and time of blooming. The space
+they were to fill demanded about seventy bushes, allowing an average of
+eight feet from plant to plant--not seventy different kinds, but,
+perhaps, ten of one kind, and two or three fives, and some threes, and a
+few single plants, always bearing in mind the ultimate intention of
+pictorial aspect as a whole. In choosing the plants and in arranging and
+disposing the groups these ideas were kept in mind: to make pleasant
+ways from lawn to copse; to group only in beautiful colour harmonies; to
+choose varieties beautiful in themselves; to plant thoroughly well, and
+to avoid overcrowding. Plantations of these grand shrubs are generally
+spoilt or ineffective, if not absolutely jarring, for want of attention
+to these simple rules. The choice of kinds is now so large, and the
+variety of colouring so extensive, that nothing can be easier than to
+make beautiful combinations, if intending planters will only take the
+small amount of preliminary trouble that is needful. Some of the
+clumps are of brilliant scarlet-crimson, rose and white, but out of the
+great choice of colours that might be so named only those are chosen
+that make just the colour-harmony that was intended. A large group,
+quite detached from this one, and more in the shade of the copse, is of
+the best of the lilacs, purples, and whites. When some clumps of young
+hollies have grown, those two groups will not be seen at the same time,
+except from a distance. The purple and white group is at present rather
+the handsomest, from the free-growing habit of the fine old kind _Album
+elegans_, which forms towering masses at the back. A detail of pictorial
+effect that was aimed at, and that has come out well, was devised in the
+expectation that the purple groups would look richer in the shade, and
+the crimson ones in the sun. This arrangement has answered admirably.
+Before planting, the ground, of the poorest quality possible, was deeply
+trenched, and the Rhododendrons were planted in wide holes filled with
+peat, and finished with a comfortable "mulch," or surface-covering of
+farmyard manure. From this a supply of grateful nutriment was gradually
+washed in to the roots. This beneficial surface-dressing was renewed
+every year for two years after planting, and even longer in the case of
+the slower growing kinds. No plant better repays care during its early
+years. Broad grass paths leading from the lawn at several points pass
+among the clumps, and are continued through the upper parts of the
+copse, passing through zones of different trees; first a good stretch
+of birch and holly, then of Spanish chestnut, next of oak, and finally
+of Scotch fir, with a sprinkling of birch and mountain ash, all with an
+undergrowth of heath and whortleberry and bracken. Thirty years ago it
+was all a wood of old Scotch fir. This was cut at its best marketable
+maturity, and the present young wood is made of what came up self-sown.
+This natural wild growth was thick enough to allow of vigorous cutting
+out, and the preponderance of firs in the upper part and of birch in the
+lower suggested that these were the kinds that should predominate in
+their respective places.
+
+[Illustration: RHODODENDRONS WHERE THE COPSE AND GARDEN MEET.]
+
+It may be useful to describe a little more in detail the plan I followed
+in grouping Rhododendrons, for I feel sure that any one with a feeling
+for harmonious colouring, having once seen or tried some such plan, will
+never again approve of the haphazard mixtures. There may be better
+varieties representing the colourings aimed at in the several groups,
+but those named are ones that I know, and they will serve as well as any
+others to show what is meant.
+
+The colourings seem to group themselves into six classes of easy
+harmonies, which I venture to describe thus:--
+
+1. Crimsons inclining to scarlet or blood-colour grouped with dark
+claret-colour and true pink.
+
+In this group I have planted Nigrescens, dark claret-colour; John
+Waterer and James Marshall Brook, both fine red-crimsons; Alexander
+Adie and Atrosanguineum, good crimsons, inclining to blood-colour;
+Alarm, rosy-scarlet; and Bianchi, pure pink.
+
+2. Light scarlet rose colours inclining to salmon, a most desirable
+range of colour, but of which the only ones I know well are Mrs. R. S.
+Holford, and a much older kind, Lady Eleanor Cathcart. These I put by
+themselves, only allowing rather near them the good pink Bianchi.
+
+3. Rose colours inclining to amaranth.
+
+4. Amaranths or magenta-crimsons.
+
+5. Crimson or amaranth-purples.
+
+6. Cool clear purples of the typical _ponticum_ class, both dark and
+light, grouped with lilac-whites, such as _Album elegans_ and _Album
+grandiflorum_. The beautiful partly-double _Everestianum_ comes into
+this group, but nothing redder among purples. _Fastuosum florepleno_ is
+also admitted, and _Luciferum_ and _Reine Hortense_, both good
+lilac-whites. But the purples that are most effective are merely
+_ponticum_ seedlings, chosen when in bloom in the nursery for their
+depth and richness of cool purple colour.
+
+My own space being limited, I chose three of the above groups only,
+leaving out, as of colouring less pleasing to my personal liking, groups
+3, 4, and 5. The remaining ones gave me examples of colouring the most
+widely different, and at the same time the most agreeable to my
+individual taste. It would have been easier, if that had been the
+object, to have made groups of the three other classes of colouring,
+which comprise by far the largest number of the splendid varieties now
+grown. There are a great many beautiful whites; of these, two that I
+most admire are Madame Carvalho and Sappho; the latter is an immense
+flower, with a conspicuous purple blotch. There is also a grand old kind
+called Minnie, a very large-growing one, with fine white trusses; and a
+dwarf-growing white that comes early into bloom is Cunningham's White,
+also useful for forcing, as it is a small plant, and a free bloomer.
+
+[Illustration: GRASS WALKS THROUGH THE COPSE.]
+
+Nothing is more perplexing than to judge of the relative merits of
+colours in a Rhododendron nursery, where they are all mixed up. I have
+twice been specially to look for varieties of a true pink colour, but
+the quantity of untrue pinks is so great that anything approaching a
+clear pink looks much better than it is. In this way I chose Kate
+Waterer and Sylph, both splendid varieties; but when I grew them with my
+true pink Bianchi they would not do, the colour having the suspicion of
+rank quality that I wished to keep out of that group. This same Bianchi,
+with its mongrel-sounding name, I found was not grown in the larger
+nurseries. I had it from Messrs. Maurice Young, of the Milford
+Nurseries, near Godalming. I regretted to hear lately from some one to
+whom I recommended it that it could not be supplied. It is to be hoped
+that so good a thing has not been lost.
+
+A little way from the main Rhododendron clumps, and among bushy
+Andromedas, I have the splendid hybrid of _R. Aucklandi_, raised by
+Mr. A. Waterer. The trusses are astoundingly large, and the individual
+blooms large and delicately beautiful, like small richly-modelled lilies
+of a tender, warm, white colour. It is quite hardy south of London, and
+unquestionably desirable. Its only fault is leggy growth; one year's
+growth measures twenty-three inches, but this only means that it should
+be planted among other bushes.
+
+[Illustration: RHODODENDRONS AT THE EDGE OF THE COPSE.]
+
+The last days of May see hardy Azaleas in beauty. Any of them may be
+planted in company, for all their colours harmonise. In this garden,
+where care is taken to group plants well for colour, the whites are
+planted at the lower and more shady end of the group; next come the pale
+yellows and pale pinks, and these are followed at a little distance by
+kinds whose flowers are of orange, copper, flame, and scarlet-crimson
+colourings; this strong-coloured group again softening off at the upper
+end by strong yellows, and dying away into the woodland by bushes of the
+common yellow _Azalea pontica_, and its variety with flowers of larger
+size and deeper colour. The plantation is long in shape, straggling over
+a space of about half an acre, the largest and strongest-coloured group
+being in an open clearing about midway in the length. The ground between
+them is covered with a natural growth of the wild Ling (_Calluna_) and
+Whortleberry, and the small, white-flowered Bed-straw, with the
+fine-bladed Sheep's-fescue grass, the kind most abundant in heathland.
+The surrounding ground is copse, of a wild, forest-like character, of
+birch and small oak. A wood-path of wild heath cut short winds through
+the planted group, which also comprises some of the beautiful
+white-flowered Californian _Azalea occidentalis_, and bushes of some of
+the North American Vacciniums.
+
+Azaleas should never be planted among or even within sight of
+Rhododendrons. Though both enjoy a moist peat soil, and have a near
+botanical relationship, they are incongruous in appearance, and
+impossible to group together for colour. This must be understood to
+apply to the two classes of plants of the hardy kinds, as commonly grown
+in gardens. There are tender kinds of the East Indian families that are
+quite harmonious, but those now in question are the ordinary varieties
+of so-called Ghent Azaleas, and the hardy hybrid Rhododendrons. In the
+case of small gardens, where there is only room for one bed or clump of
+peat plants, it would be better to have a group of either one or the
+other of these plants, rather than spoil the effect by the inharmonious
+mixture of both.
+
+I always think it desirable to group together flowers that bloom at the
+same time. It is impossible, and even undesirable, to have a garden in
+blossom all over, and groups of flower-beauty are all the more enjoyable
+for being more or less isolated by stretches of intervening greenery. As
+one lovely group for May I recommend Moutan Pæony and _Clematis
+montana_, the Clematis on a wall low enough to let its wreaths of bloom
+show near the Pæony. The old Guelder Rose or Snowball-tree is beautiful
+anywhere, but I think it best of all on the cold side of a wall. Of
+course it is perfectly hardy, and a bush of strong, sturdy growth, and
+has no need of the wall either for support or for shelter; but I am for
+clothing the garden walls with all the prettiest things they can wear,
+and no shrub I know makes a better show. Moreover, as there is
+necessarily less wood in a flat wall tree than in a round bush, and as
+the front shoots must be pruned close back, it follows that much more
+strength is thrown into the remaining wood, and the blooms are much
+larger.
+
+I have a north wall eleven feet high, with a Guelder Rose on each side
+of a doorway, and a _Clematis montana_ that is trained on the top of the
+whole. The two flower at the same time, their growths mingling in
+friendly fashion, while their unlikeness of habit makes the
+companionship all the more interesting. The Guelder Rose is a
+stiff-wooded thing, the character of its main stems being a kind of
+stark uprightness, though the great white balls hang out with a certain
+freedom from the newly-grown shoots. The Clematis meets it with an
+exactly opposite way of growth, swinging down its great swags of
+many-flowered garland masses into the head of its companion, with here
+and there a single flowering streamer making a tiny wreath on its own
+account.
+
+On the southern sides of the same gateway are two large bushes of the
+Mexican Orange-flower (_Choisya ternata_), loaded with its orange-like
+bloom. Buttresses flank the doorway on this side, dying away into the
+general thickness of the wall above the arch by a kind of roofing of
+broad flat stones that lay back at an easy pitch. In mossy hollows at
+their joints and angles, some tufts of Thrift and of little Rock Pinks
+have found a home, and show as tenderly-coloured tufts of rather dull
+pink bloom. Above all is the same white Clematis, some of its abundant
+growth having been trained over the south side, so that this one plant
+plays a somewhat important part in two garden-scenes.
+
+Through the gateway again, beyond the wall northward and partly within
+its shade, is a portion of ground devoted to Pæonies, in shape a long
+triangle, whose proportion in length is about thrice its breadth
+measured at the widest end. A low cross-wall, five feet high, divides it
+nearly in half near the Guelder Roses, and it is walled again on the
+other long side of the triangle by a rough structure of stone and earth,
+which, in compliment to its appearance, we call the Old Wall, of which I
+shall have something to say later. Thus the Pæonies are protected all
+round, for they like a sheltered place, and the Moutans do best with
+even a little passing shade at some time of the day. Moutan is the
+Chinese name for Tree Pæony. For an immense hardy flower of beautiful
+colouring what can equal the salmon-rose Moutan Reine Elizabeth? Among
+the others that I have, those that give me most pleasure are Baronne
+d'Alès and Comtesse de Tuder, both pinks of a delightful quality, and
+a lovely white called Bijou de Chusan. The Tree Pæonies are also
+beautiful in leaf; the individual leaves are large and important, and so
+carried that they are well displayed. Their colour is peculiar, being
+bluish, but pervaded with a suspicion of pink or pinkish-bronze,
+sometimes of a metallic quality that faintly recalls some of the
+variously-coloured alloys of metal that the Japanese bronze-workers make
+and use with such consummate skill.
+
+[Illustration: SOUTH SIDE OF DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA AND CHOISYA.]
+
+[Illustration: NORTH SIDE OF THE SAME DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA AND
+GUELDER-ROSE.]
+
+It is a matter of regret that varieties of the better kinds of Moutans
+are not generally grown on their own roots, and still more so that the
+stock in common use should not even be the type Tree Pæony, but one of
+the herbaceous kinds, so that we have plants of a hard-wooded shrub
+worked on a thing as soft as a Dahlia root. This is probably the reason
+why they are so difficult to establish, and so slow to grow, especially
+on light soils, even when their beds have been made deep and liberally
+enriched with what one judges to be the most gratifying comfort. Every
+now and then, just before blooming time, a plant goes off all at once,
+smitten with sudden death. At the time of making my collection I was
+unable to visit the French nurseries where these plants are so admirably
+grown, and whence most of the best kinds have come. I had to choose them
+by the catalogue description--always an unsatisfactory way to any one
+with a keen eye for colour, although in this matter the compilers of
+foreign catalogues are certainly less vague than those of our own. Many
+of the plants therefore had to be shifted into better groups for colour
+after their first blooming, a matter the more to be regretted as Pæonies
+dislike being moved.
+
+The other half of the triangular bit of Pæony ground--the pointed
+end--is given to the kinds I like best of the large June-flowered
+Pæonies, the garden varieties of the Siberian _P. albiflora_, popularly
+known as Chinese Pæonies. Though among these, as is the case with all
+the kinds, there is a preponderance of pink or rose-crimson colouring of
+a decidedly rank quality, yet the number of varieties is so great, that
+among the minority of really good colouring there are plenty to choose
+from, including a good number of beautiful whites and whites tinged with
+yellow. Of those I have, the kinds I like best are--
+
+    Hypatia, pink.
+    Madame Benare, salmon-rose.
+    The Queen, pale salmon-rose.
+    Léonie, salmon-rose.
+    Virginie, warm white.
+    Solfaterre, pale yellow.
+    Edouard André, deep claret.
+    Madame Calot, flesh pink.
+    Madame Bréon.
+    Alba sulfurea.
+    Triomphans gandavensis.
+    Carnea elegans (Guerin).
+    Curiosa, pink and blush.
+    Prince Pierre Galitzin, blush.
+    Eugenie Verdier, pale pink.
+    Elegans superbissima, yellowish-white.
+    Virgo Maria, white.
+    Philomèle, blush.
+    Madame Dhour, rose.
+    Duchesse de Nemours, yellow-white.
+    Faust.
+    Belle Douaisienne.
+    Jeanne d'Arc.
+    Marie Lemoine.
+
+Many of the lovely flowers in this class have a rather strong, sweet
+smell, something like a mixture of the scents of Rose and Tulip.
+
+Then there are the old garden Pæonies, the double varieties of _P.
+officinalis_. They are in three distinct colourings--full rich crimson,
+crimson-rose, and pale pink changing to dull white. These are the
+earliest to flower, and with them it is convenient, from the garden
+point of view, to class some of the desirable species.
+
+Some years ago my friend Mr. Barr kindly gave me a set of the Pæony
+species as grown by him. I wished to have them, not for the sake of
+making a collection, but in order to see which were the ones I should
+like best to grow as garden flowers. In due time they grew into strong
+plants and flowered. A good many had to be condemned because of the raw
+magenta colour of the bloom, one or two only that had this defect being
+reprieved on account of their handsome foliage and habit. Prominent
+among these was _P. decora_, with bluish foliage handsomely displayed,
+the whole plant looking strong and neat and well-dressed. Others whose
+flower-colour I cannot commend, but that seemed worth growing on account
+of their rich masses of handsome foliage, are _P. triternata_ and _P.
+Broteri_. Though small in size, the light red flower of _P. lobata_ is
+of a beautiful colour. _P. tenuifolia_, in both single and double form,
+is an old garden favourite. _P. Wittmanniana_, with its yellow-green
+leaves and tender yellow flower, is a gem; but it is rather rare, and
+probably uncertain, for mine, alas! had no sooner grown into a fine
+clump than it suddenly died.
+
+All Pæonies are strong feeders. Their beds should be deeply and richly
+prepared, and in later years they are grateful for liberal gifts of
+manure, both as surface dressings and waterings.
+
+Friends often ask me vaguely about Pæonies, and when I say, "What kind
+of Pæonies?" they have not the least idea.
+
+Broadly, and for garden purposes, one may put them into three classes--
+
+1. Tree Pæonies (_P. moutan_), shrubby, flowering in May.
+
+2. Chinese Pæonies (_P. albiflora_), herbaceous, flowering in June.
+
+3. Old garden Pæonies (_P. officinalis_), herbaceous, including some
+other herbaceous species.
+
+I find it convenient to grow Pæony species and Caulescent (Lent)
+Hellebores together. They are in a wide border on the north side of the
+high wall and partly shaded by it. They are agreed in their liking for
+deeply-worked ground with an admixture of loam and lime, for shelter,
+and for rich feeding; and the Pæony clumps, set, as it were, in picture
+frames of the lower-growing Hellebores, are seen to all the more
+advantage.
+
+[Illustration: FREE CLUSTER-ROSE AS STANDARD IN A COTTAGE GARDEN.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+JUNE
+
+The gladness of June -- The time of Roses -- Garden Roses -- Reine
+Blanche -- The old white Rose -- Old garden Roses as standards --
+Climbing and rambling Roses -- Scotch Briars -- Hybrid Perpetuals a
+difficulty -- Tea Roses -- Pruning -- Sweet Peas, autumn sown --
+Elder-trees -- Virginian Cowslip -- Dividing spring-blooming plants --
+Two best Mulleins -- White French Willow -- Bracken.
+
+
+What is one to say about June--the time of perfect young summer, the
+fulfilment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign
+to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade? For my own
+part I wander up into the wood and say, "June is here--June is here;
+thank God for lovely June!" The soft cooing of the wood-dove, the glad
+song of many birds, the flitting of butterflies, the hum of all the
+little winged people among the branches, the sweet earth-scents--all
+seem to say the same, with an endless reiteration, never wearying
+because so gladsome. It is the offering of the Hymn of Praise! The
+lizards run in and out of the heathy tufts in the hot sunshine, and as
+the long day darkens the night-jar trolls out his strange song, so
+welcome because it is the prelude to the perfect summer night; here and
+there a glowworm shows its little lamp. June is here--June is here;
+thank God for lovely June!
+
+And June is the time of Roses. I have great delight in the best of the
+old garden Roses; the Provence (Cabbage Rose), sweetest of all sweets,
+and the Moss Rose, its crested variety; the early Damask, and its red
+and white striped kind; the old, nearly single, Reine Blanche. I do not
+know the origin of this charming Rose, but by its appearance it should
+be related to the Damask. A good many years ago I came upon it in a
+cottage garden in Sussex, and thought I had found a white Damask. The
+white is a creamy white, the outsides of the outer petals are stained
+with red, first showing clearly in the bud. The scent is delicate and
+delightful, with a faint suspicion of Magnolia. A few years ago this
+pretty old Rose found its way to one of the meetings of the Royal
+Horticultural Society, where it gained much praise. It was there that I
+recognised my old friend, and learned its name.
+
+I am fond of the old _Rosa alba_, both single and double, and its
+daughter, Maiden's Blush. How seldom one sees these Roses except in
+cottage gardens; but what good taste it shows on the cottager's part,
+for what Rose is so perfectly at home upon the modest little wayside
+porch?
+
+I have also learnt from cottage gardens how pretty are some of the old
+Roses grown as standards. The picture of my neighbour, Mrs. Edgeler,
+picking me a bunch from her bush, shows how freely they flower, and what
+fine standards they make. I have taken the hint, and have now some big
+round-headed standards, the heads a yard through, of the lovely Celeste
+and of Madame Plantier, that are worth looking at, though one of them is
+rather badly-shaped this year, for my handsome Jack (donkey) ate one
+side of it when he was waiting outside the studio door, while his
+cart-load of logs for the ingle fire was being unloaded.
+
+What a fine thing, among the cluster Roses, is the old Dundee Rambler! I
+trained one to go up a rather upright green Holly about twenty-five feet
+high, and now it has rushed up and tumbles out at the top and sides in
+masses of its pretty bloom. It is just as good grown as a "fountain,"
+giving it a free space where it can spread at will with no training or
+support whatever. These two ways I think are much the best for growing
+the free, rambling Roses. In the case of the fountain, the branches arch
+over and display the flowers to perfection; if you tie your Rose up to a
+tall post or train it over an arch or _pergola_, the birds flying
+overhead have the best of the show. The Garland Rose, another old sort,
+is just as suitable for this kind of growth as Dundee Rambler, and the
+individual flowers, of a tender blush-colour, changing to white, are
+even more delicate and pretty.
+
+The newer Crimson Rambler is a noble plant for the same use, in sunlight
+gorgeous of bloom, and always brilliant with its glossy bright-green
+foliage. Of the many good plants from Japan, this is the best that has
+reached us of late years. The Himalayan _Rosa Brunonii_ is loaded with
+its clusters of milk-white bloom, that are so perfectly in harmony with
+its very long, almost blue leaves. But of all the free-growing Roses,
+the most remarkable for rampant growth is _R. polyantha_. One of the
+bushes in this garden covers a space thirty-four feet across--more than
+a hundred feet round. It forms a great fountain-like mass, covered with
+myriads of its small white flowers, whose scent is carried a
+considerable distance. Directly the flower is over it throws up rods of
+young growth eighteen to twenty feet long; as they mature they arch
+over, and next year their many short lateral shoots will be smothered
+with bloom.
+
+Two other Roses of free growth are also great favourites--Madame Alfred
+Carrière, with long-stalked loose white flowers, and Emilie Plantier. I
+have them on an east fence, where they yield a large quantity of bloom
+for cutting; indeed, they have been so useful in this way that I have
+planted several more, but this time for training down to an oak trellis,
+like the one that supports the row of Bouquet d'Or, in order to bring
+the flowers within easier reach.
+
+Now we look for the bloom of the Burnet Rose (_Rosa spinosissima_), a
+lovely native plant, and its garden varieties, the Scotch Briars. The
+wild plant is widely distributed in England, though somewhat local.
+It grows on moors in Scotland, and on Beachy Head in Sussex, and near
+Tenby in South Wales, favouring wild places within smell of the sea. The
+rather dusky foliage sets off the lemon-white of the wild, and the clear
+white, pink, rose, and pale yellow of the double garden kinds. The hips
+are large and handsome, black and glossy, and the whole plant in late
+autumn assumes a fine bronzy colouring between ashy black and dusky red.
+Other small old garden Roses are coming into bloom. One of the most
+desirable, and very frequent in this district, is _Rosa lucida_, with
+red stems, highly-polished leaves, and single, fragrant flowers of pure
+rosy-pink colour. The leaves turn a brilliant yellow in autumn, and
+after they have fallen the bushes are still bright with the coloured
+stems and the large clusters of bright-red hips. It is the St. Mark's
+Rose of Venice, where it is usually in flower on St. Mark's Day, April
+25th. The double variety is the old _Rose d'amour_, now rare in gardens;
+its half-expanded bud is perhaps the most daintily beautiful thing that
+any Rose can show.
+
+[Illustration: DOUBLE WHITE SCOTCH BRIAR.]
+
+After many years of fruitless effort I have to allow that I am beaten in
+the attempt to grow the Grand Roses in the Hybrid Perpetual class. They
+plainly show their dislike to our dry hill, even when their beds are as
+well enriched as I can contrive or afford to make them. The rich loam
+that they love has to come many miles from the Weald by hilly roads in
+four-horse waggons, and the haulage is so costly that when it arrives I
+feel like distributing it with a spoon rather than with the spade.
+Moreover, even if a bed is filled with the precious loam, unless
+constantly watered the plants seem to feel and resent the two hundred
+feet of dry sand and rock that is under them before any moister stratum
+is reached.
+
+But the Tea Roses are more accommodating, and do fairly well, though, of
+course, not so well as in a stiffer soil. If I were planting again I
+should grow a still larger proportion of the kinds I have now found to
+do best. Far beyond all others is Madame Lambard, good alike early and
+late, and beautiful at all times. In this garden it yields quite three
+times as much bloom as any other; nothing else can approach it either
+for beauty or bounty. Viscountess Folkestone, not properly a Tea, but
+classed among Hybrid Noisettes, is also free and beautiful and
+long-enduring; and Papa Gontier, so like a deeper-coloured Lambard, is
+another favourite. Bouquet d'Or is here the strongest of the Dijon Teas.
+I grow it in several positions, but most conveniently on a strong bit of
+oak post and rail trellis, keeping the long growths tied down, and every
+two years cutting the oldest wood right out. It is well to remember that
+the tying or pegging down of Roses always makes them bloom better: every
+joint from end to end wants to make a good Rose; if the shoots are more
+upright, the blooming strength goes more to the top.
+
+The pruning of Tea Roses is quite different from the pruning required
+for the Hybrid Perpetuals. In these the last year's growth is cut
+back in March to within two to five eyes from where it leaves the main
+branch, according to the strength of the kind. This must not be done
+with the Teas. With these the oldest wood is cut right out from the
+base, and the blooming shoots left full length. But it is well, towards
+the end of July or beginning of August, to cut back the ends of soft
+summer shoots in order to give them a chance of ripening what is left.
+When an old Tea looks worn out, if cut right down in March or April it
+will often throw out vigorous young growth, and quite renew its life.
+
+[Illustration: PART OF A BUSH OF ROSA POLYANTHA.]
+
+[Illustration: GARLAND-ROSE, SHOWING NATURAL WAY OF GROWTH.]
+
+Within the first days of June we can generally pick some Sweet Peas from
+the rows sown in the second week of September. They are very much
+stronger than those sown in spring. By November they are four inches
+high, and seem to gain strength and sturdiness during the winter; for as
+soon as spring comes they shoot up with great vigour, and we know that
+the spray used to support them must be two feet higher than for those
+that are spring-sown. The flower-stalks are a foot long, and many have
+four flowers on a stalk. They are sown in shallow trenches; in spring
+they are earthed up very slightly, but still with a little trench at the
+base of the plants. A few doses of liquid manure are a great help when
+they are getting towards blooming strength.
+
+I am very fond of the Elder-tree. It is a sociable sort of thing; it
+seems to like to grow near human habitations. In my own mind it is
+certainly the tree most closely associated with the pretty old cottage
+and farm architecture of my part of the country; no bush or tree, not
+even the apple, seems to group so well or so closely with farm
+buildings. When I built a long thatched shed for the many needs of the
+garden, in the region of pits and frames, compost, rubbish and
+burn-heap, I planted Elders close to the end of the building and on one
+side of the yard. They look just right, and are, moreover, every year
+loaded with their useful fruit. This is ripe quite early in September,
+and is made into Elder wine, to be drunk hot in winter, a comfort by no
+means to be despised. My trees now give enough for my own wants, and
+there are generally a few acceptable bushels to spare for my cottage
+neighbours.
+
+About the middle of the month the Virginian Cowslip (_Mertensia
+virginica_) begins to turn yellow before dying down. Now is the time to
+look out for the seeds. A few ripen on the plant, but most of them fall
+while green, and then ripen in a few days while lying on the ground. I
+shake the seeds carefully out, and leave them lying round the
+parent-plant; a week later, when they will be ripe, they are lightly
+scratched into the ground. Some young plants of last year's growth I
+mark with a bit of stick, in case of wanting some later to plant
+elsewhere, or to send away; the plant dies away completely, leaving no
+trace above ground, so that if not marked it would be difficult to find
+what is wanted.
+
+[Illustration: LILAC MARIE LEGRAYE. (_See page 23._)]
+
+[Illustration: FLOWERING ELDER AND PATH FROM GARDEN TO COPSE.]
+
+This is also the time for pulling to pieces and replanting that good
+spring plant, the large variety of _Myosotis dissitiflora_; I always
+make sure of divisions, as seed does not come true. _Primula rosea_
+should also be divided now, and planted to grow on in a cool place, such
+as the foot of a north or east wall, or be put at once in its place in
+some cool, rather moist spot in the rock-garden. Two-year-old plants
+come up with thick clumps of matted root that is now useless. I cut off
+the whole mass of old root about an inch below the crown, when it can
+easily be divided into nice little bits for replanting. Many other
+spring-flowering plants may with advantage be divided now, such as
+Aubrietia, Arabis, Auricula, Tiarella, and Saxifrage.
+
+The young Primrose plants, sown in March, have been planted out in their
+special garden, and are looking well after some genial rain.
+
+The great branching Mullein, _Verbascum olympicum_, is just going out of
+bloom, after making a brilliant display for a fortnight. It is followed
+by the other of the most useful tall, yellow-flowered kinds, _V.
+phlomoides_. Both are seen at their best either quite early in the
+morning, or in the evening, or in half-shade, as, like all their kind,
+they do not expand their bloom in bright sunshine. Both are excellent
+plants on poor soils. _V. olympicum_, though classed as a biennial, does
+not come to flowering strength till it is three or four years old; but
+meanwhile the foliage is so handsome that even if there were no flower
+it would be a worthy garden plant. It does well in any waste spaces of
+poor soil, where, by having plants of all ages, there will be some to
+flower every year. The Mullein moth is sure to find them out, and it
+behoves the careful gardener to look for and destroy the caterpillars,
+or he may some day find, instead of his stately Mulleins, tall stems
+only clothed with unsightly grey rags. The caterpillars are easily
+caught when quite small or when rather large; but midway in their
+growth, when three-quarters of an inch long, they are wary, and at the
+approach of the avenging gardener they will give a sudden wriggling
+jump, and roll down into the lower depths of the large foliage, where
+they are difficult to find. But by going round the plants twice a day
+for about a week they can all be discovered.
+
+The white variety of the French Willow (_Epilobium angustifolium_) is a
+pretty plant in the edges of the copse, good both in sun and shade, and
+flourishing in any poor soil. In better ground it grows too rank,
+running quickly at the root and invading all its neighbours, so that it
+should be planted with great caution; but when grown on poor ground it
+flowers at from two feet to four feet high, and its whole aspect is
+improved by the proportional amount of flower becoming much larger.
+
+Towards the end of June the bracken that covers the greater part of the
+ground of the copse is in full beauty. No other manner of undergrowth
+gives to woodland in so great a degree the true forest-like character.
+This most ancient plant speaks of the old, untouched land of which large
+stretches still remain in the south of England--land too poor to have
+been worth cultivating, and that has therefore for centuries endured
+human contempt. In the early part of the present century, William
+Cobbett, in his delightful book, "Rural Rides," speaking of the heathy
+headlands and vast hollow of Hindhead, in Surrey, calls it "certainly
+the most villainous spot God ever made." This gives expression to his
+view, as farmer and political economist, of such places as were
+incapable of cultivation, and of the general feeling of the time about
+lonely roads in waste places, as the fields for the lawless labours of
+smuggler and highwayman. Now such tracts of natural wild beauty, clothed
+with stretches of Heath and Fern and Whortleberry, with beds of Sphagnum
+Moss, and little natural wild gardens of curious and beautiful
+sub-aquatic plants in the marshy hollows and undrained wastes, are
+treasured as such places deserve to be, especially when they still
+remain within fifty miles of a vast city. The height to which the
+bracken grows is a sure guide to the depth of soil. On the poorest,
+thinnest ground it only reaches a foot or two; but in hollow places
+where leaf-mould accumulates and surface soil has washed in and made a
+better depth, it grows from six feet to eight feet high, and when
+straggling up through bushes to get to the light a frond will sometimes
+measure as much as twelve feet. The old country people who have always
+lived on the same poor land say, "Where the farn grows tall anything
+will grow"; but that only means that there the ground is somewhat better
+and capable of cultivation, as its presence is a sure indication of a
+sandy soil. The timber-merchants are shy of buying oak trees felled from
+among it, the timber of trees grown on the wealden clay being so much
+better.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+JULY
+
+Scarcity of flowers -- Delphiniums -- Yuccas -- Cottager's way of
+protecting tender plants -- Alströmerias -- Carnations -- Gypsophila --
+_Lilium giganteum_ -- Cutting fern-pegs.
+
+
+After the wealth of bloom of June, there appear to be but few flowers in
+the garden; there seems to be a time of comparative emptiness between
+the earlier flowers and those of autumn. It is true that in the early
+days of July we have Delphiniums, the grandest blues of the flower year.
+They are in two main groups in the flower border, one of them nearly all
+of the palest kind--not a solid clump, but with a thicker nucleus,
+thinning away for several yards right and left. Only white and
+pale-yellow flowers are grouped with this, and pale, fresh-looking
+foliage of maize and Funkia. The other group is at some distance, at the
+extreme western end. This is of the full and deeper blues, following a
+clump of Yuccas, and grouped about with things of important silvery
+foliage, such as Globe Artichoke and Silver Thistle (_Eryngium_). I have
+found it satisfactory to grow Delphiniums from seed, choosing the fine
+strong "Cantab" as the seed-parent, because the flowers were of a
+medium colour--scarcely so light as the name would imply--and because of
+its vigorous habit and well-shaped spike. It produced flowers of all
+shades of blue, and from these were derived nearly all I have in the
+border. I found them better for the purpose in many cases than the named
+kinds of which I had a fair collection.
+
+The seedlings were well grown for two years in nursery lines, worthless
+ones being taken out as soon as they showed their character. There is
+one common defect that I cannot endure--an interrupted spike, when the
+flowers, having filled a good bit of the spike, leave off, leaving a
+space of bare stem, and then go on again. If this habit proves to be
+persistent after the two years' trial, the plant is condemned. For my
+liking the spike must be well filled, but not overcrowded. Many of the
+show kinds are too full for beauty; the shape of the individual flower
+is lost. Some of the double ones are handsome, but in these the flower
+takes another shape, becoming more rosette-like, and thereby loses its
+original character. Some are of mixed colouring, a shade of lilac-pink
+sliding through pale blue. It is very beautiful in some cases, the
+respective tints remaining as clear as in an opal, but in many it only
+muddles the flower and makes it ineffective.
+
+Delphiniums are greedy feeders, and pay for rich cultivation and for
+liberal manurial mulches and waterings. In a hot summer, if not well
+cared for, they get stunted and are miserable objects, the flower
+distorted and cramped into a clumsy-looking, elongated mop-head.
+
+Though weak in growth the old _Delphinium Belladonna_ has so lovely a
+quality of colour that it is quite indispensable; the feeble stem should
+be carefully and unobtrusively staked for the better display of its
+incomparable blue.
+
+Some of the Yuccas will bloom before the end of the month. I have them
+in bold patches the whole fifteen-feet depth of the border at the
+extreme ends, and on each side of the pathway, where, passing from the
+lawn to the Pæony ground, it cuts across the border to go through the
+arched gateway. The kinds of Yucca are _gloriosa_, _recurva_,
+_flaccida_, and _filamentosa_. They are good to look at at all times of
+the year because of their grand strong foliage, and are the glory of the
+garden when in flower. One of the _gloriosa_ threw up a stout
+flower-spike in January. I had thought of protecting and roofing the
+spike, in the hope of carrying it safely through till spring, but
+meanwhile there came a damp day and a frosty night, and when I saw it
+again it was spoilt. The _Yucca filamentosa_ that I have I was told by a
+trusty botanist was the true plant, but rather tender, the one commonly
+called by that name being something else. I found it in a cottage
+garden, where I learnt a useful lesson in protecting plants, namely, the
+use of thickly-cut peaty sods. The goodwife had noticed that the peaty
+ground of the adjoining common, covered with heath and gorse and mossy
+grass, resisted frost much better than the garden or meadow, and it had
+been her practice for many years to get some thick dry sods with the
+heath left on and to pack them close round to protect tender plants. In
+this way she had preserved her Fuchsias of greenhouse kinds, and
+Calceolarias, and the Yucca in question.
+
+The most brilliant mass of flower in early July is given by the beds of
+_Alströmeria aurantiaca_; of this we have three distinct varieties, all
+desirable. There is a four feet wide bed, some forty feet long, of the
+kind most common in gardens, and at a distance from it a group grown
+from selected seed of a paler colour; seedlings of this remain true to
+colour, or, as gardeners say, the variety is "fixed." The third sort is
+from a good old garden in Ireland, larger in every way than the type,
+with petals of great width, and extremely rich in colour. _Alströmeria
+chilense_ is an equally good plant, and beds of it are beautiful in
+their varied colourings, all beautifully harmonious, and ranging through
+nearly the same tints as hardy Azaleas. These are the best of the
+Alströmerias for ordinary garden culture; they do well in warm,
+sheltered places in the poorest soil, but the soil must be deep, for the
+bunches of tender, fleshy roots go far down. The roots are extremely
+brittle, and must be carefully handled. Alströmerias are easily raised
+from seed, but when the seedlings are planted out the crowns should be
+quite four inches under the surface, and have a thick bed of leaves or
+some other mild mulching material over them in winter to protect them
+from frost, for they are Chilian plants, and demand and deserve a little
+surface comfort to carry them safely through the average English winter.
+
+Sea-holly (_Eryngium_) is another family of July-flowering plants that
+does well on poor, sandy soils that have been deeply stirred. Of these
+the more generally useful is _E. Oliverianum_, the _E. amethystinum_ of
+nurserymen, but so named in error, the true plant being rare and
+scarcely known in gardens. The whole plant has an admirable structure of
+a dry and nervous quality, with a metallic colouring and dull lustre
+that are in strong contrast to softer types of vegetation. The
+black-coated roots go down straight and deep, and enable it to withstand
+almost any drought. Equalling it in beauty is _E. giganteum_, the Silver
+Thistle, of the same metallic texture, but whitish and almost silvery.
+This is a biennial, and should be sown every year. A more lowly plant,
+but hardly less beautiful, is the wild Sea-holly of our coasts (_E.
+maritimum_), with leaves almost blue, and a handsome tuft of flower
+nearly matching them in colour. It occurs on wind-blown sandhills, but
+is worth a place in any garden. It comes up rather late, but endures,
+apparently unchanged, except for the bloom, throughout the late summer
+and autumn.
+
+But the flower of this month that has the firmest hold of the
+gardener's heart is the Carnation--the Clove Gilliflower of our
+ancestors. Why the good old name "Gilliflower" has gone out of use it is
+impossible to say, for certainly the popularity of the flower has never
+waned. Indeed, in the seventeenth century it seems that it was the
+best-loved flower of all in England; for John Parkinson, perhaps our
+earliest writer on garden plants, devotes to it a whole chapter in his
+"Paradisus Terrestris," a distinction shared by no other flower. He
+describes no less than fifty kinds, a few of which are still to be
+recognised, though some are lost. For instance, what has become of the
+"_great gray Hulo_" which he describes as a plant of the largest and
+strongest habit? The "gray" in this must refer to the colour of the
+leaf, as he says the flower is red; but there is also a variety called
+the "_blew Hulo_," with flowers of a "purplish murrey" colouring,
+answering to the slate colour that we know as of not unfrequent
+occurrence. The branch of the family that we still cultivate as "Painted
+Lady" is named by him "Dainty Lady," the present name being no doubt an
+accidental and regrettable corruption. But though some of the older
+sorts may be lost, we have such a wealth of good known kinds that this
+need hardly be a matter of regret. The old red Clove always holds its
+own for hardiness, beauty, and perfume; its newer and dwarfer variety,
+Paul Engleheart, is quite indispensable, while the beautiful
+salmon-coloured Raby is perhaps the most useful of all, with its hardy
+constitution and great quantity of bloom. But it is difficult to grow
+Carnations on our very poor soil; even when it is carefully prepared
+they still feel its starving and drying influence, and show their
+distaste by unusual shortness of life.
+
+_Gypsophila paniculata_ is one of the most useful plants of this time of
+year; its delicate masses of bloom are like clouds of flowery mist
+settled down upon the flower borders. Shooting up behind and among it is
+a tall, salmon-coloured Gladiolus, a telling contrast both in form and
+manner of inflorescence. Nothing in the garden has been more
+satisfactory and useful than a hedge of the white everlasting Pea. The
+thick, black roots that go down straight and deep have been undisturbed
+for some years, and the plants yield a harvest of strong white bloom for
+cutting that always seems inexhaustible. They are staked with stiff,
+branching spray, thrust into the ground diagonally, and not reaching up
+too high. This supports the heavy mass of growth without encumbering the
+upper blooming part.
+
+Hydrangeas are well in flower at the foot of a warm wall, and in the
+same position are spreading masses of the beautiful _Clematis
+Davidiana_, a herbaceous kind, with large, somewhat vine-like leaves,
+and flowers of a pale-blue colour of a delicate and uncommon quality.
+
+The blooming of the _Lilium giganteum_ is one of the great flower events
+of the year. It is planted in rather large straggling groups just within
+the fringe of the copse. In March the bulbs, which are only just
+underground, thrust their sharply-pointed bottle-green tips out of the
+earth. These soon expand into heart-shaped leaves, looking much like
+Arum foliage of the largest size, and of a bright-green colour and
+glistening surface. The groups are so placed that they never see the
+morning sun. They require a slight sheltering of fir-bough, or anything
+suitable, till the third week of May, to protect the young leaves from
+the late frosts. In June the flower-stem shoots up straight and tall,
+like a vigorous young green-stemmed tree. If the bulb is strong and the
+conditions suitable, it will attain a height of over eleven feet, but
+among the flowering bulbs of a group there are sure to be some of
+various heights from differently sized bulbs; those whose stature is
+about ten feet are perhaps the handsomest. The upper part of the stem
+bears the gracefully drooping great white Lily flowers, each bloom some
+ten inches long, greenish when in bud, but changing to white when fully
+developed. Inside each petal is a purplish-red stripe. In the evening
+the scent seems to pour out of the great white trumpets, and is almost
+overpowering, but gains a delicate quality by passing through the air,
+and at fifty yards away is like a faint waft of incense. In the evening
+light, when the sun is down, the great heads of white flower have a
+mysterious and impressive effect when seen at some distance through the
+wood, and by moonlight have a strangely weird dignity. The flowers only
+last a few days, but when they are over the beauty of the plant is by
+no means gone, for the handsome leaves remain in perfection till the
+autumn, while the growing seed-pods, rising into an erect position,
+become large and rather handsome objects. The rapidity and vigour of the
+four months' growth from bulb to giant flowering plant is very
+remarkable. The stem is a hollow, fleshy tube, three inches in diameter
+at the base, and the large radiating roots are like those of a tree. The
+original bulb is, of course, gone, but when the plants that have
+flowered are taken up at the end of November, offsets are found
+clustered round the root; these are carefully detached and replanted.
+The great growth of these Lilies could not be expected to come to
+perfection in our very poor, shallow soil, for doubtless in their
+mountain home in the Eastern Himalayas they grow in deep beds of cool
+vegetable earth. Here, therefore, their beds are deeply excavated, and
+filled to within a foot of the top with any of the vegetable rubbish of
+which only too much accumulates in the late autumn. Holes twelve feet
+across and three feet deep are convenient graves for frozen Dahlia-tops
+and half-hardy Annuals; a quantity of such material chopped up and
+tramped down close forms a cool subsoil that will comfort the Lily bulbs
+for many a year. The upper foot of soil is of good compost, and when the
+young bulbs are planted, the whole is covered with some inches of dead
+leaves that join in with the natural woodland carpet.
+
+[Illustration: THE GIANT LILY.]
+
+In the end of July we have some of the hottest of the summer days, only
+beginning to cool between six and seven in the evening. One or two
+evenings I go to the upper part of the wood to cut some fern-pegs for
+pegging Carnation layers, armed with fag-hook and knife and rubber, and
+a low rush-bottomed stool to sit on. The rubber is the stone for
+sharpening the knife--a long stone of coarse sandstone grit, such as is
+used for scythes. Whenever I am at work with a knife there is sure to be
+a rubber not far off, for a blunt knife I cannot endure, so there is a
+stone in each department of the garden sheds, and a whole series in the
+workshop, and one or two to spare to take on outside jobs. The Bracken
+has to be cut with a light hand, as the side-shoots that will make the
+hook of the peg are easily broken just at the important joint. The
+fronds are of all sizes, from two to eight feet long; but the best for
+pegs are the moderate-sized, that have not been weakened by growing too
+close together. Where they are crowded the main stalk is thick, but the
+side ones are thin and weak; whereas, where they get light and air the
+side branches are carried on stouter ribs, and make stronger and
+better-balanced pegs. The cut fern is lightly laid in a long ridge with
+the ends all one way, and the operator sits at the stalk end of the
+ridge, a nice cool shady place having been chosen. Four cuts with the
+knife make a peg, and each frond makes three pegs in about fifteen
+seconds. With the fronds laid straight and handy it goes almost
+rhythmically, then each group of three pegs is thrown into the basket,
+where they clash on to the others with a hard ringing sound. In about
+four days the pegs dry to a surprising hardness; they are better than
+wooden ones, and easier and quicker to make.
+
+People who are not used to handling Bracken should be careful how they
+cut a frond with a knife; they are almost sure to get a nasty little cut
+on the second joint of the first finger of the right hand--not from the
+knife, but from the cut edge of the fern. The stalk has a silicious
+coating, that leaves a sharp edge like a thin flake of glass when cut
+diagonally with a sharp knife; they should also beware how they pick or
+pull off a mature frond, for even if the part of the stalk laid hold of
+is bruised and twisted, some of the glassy structure holds together and
+is likely to wound the hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AUGUST
+
+Leycesteria -- Early recollections -- Bank of choice shrubs -- Bank of
+Briar Roses -- Hollyhocks -- Lavender -- Lilies -- Bracken and Heaths --
+The Fern-walk -- Late-blooming rock-plants -- Autumn flowers -- Tea
+Roses -- Fruit of _Rosa rugosa_ -- Fungi -- Chantarelle.
+
+
+_Leycesteria formosa_ is a soft-wooded shrub, whose beauty, without
+being showy, is full of charm and refinement. I remember delighting in
+it in the shrub-wilderness of the old home, where I first learnt to know
+and love many a good bush and tree long before I knew their names. There
+were towering Rhododendrons (all _ponticum_) and Ailanthus and Hickory
+and Magnolias, and then Spiræa and Snowball tree and tall yellow Azalea,
+and Buttercup bush and shrubby Andromedas, and in some of the clumps
+tall Cypresses and the pretty cut-leaved Beech, and in the edges of
+others some of the good old garden Roses, double Cinnamon and _R.
+lucida_, and Damask and Provence, Moss-rose and Sweetbriar, besides
+tall-grown Lilacs and Syringa. It was all rather overgrown, and perhaps
+all the prettier, and some of the wide grassy ways were quite shady in
+summer. And I look back across the years and think what a fine
+lesson-book it was to a rather solitary child; and when I came to plant
+my own shrub clump I thought I would put rather near together some of
+the old favourites, so here again we come back to Leycesteria, put
+rather in a place of honour, and near it Buttercup bush and Andromeda
+and Magnolias and old garden Roses.
+
+[Illustration: CISTUS FLORENTINUS.]
+
+[Illustration: THE GREAT ASPHODEL.]
+
+I had no space for a shrub wilderness, but have made a large clump for
+just the things I like best, whether new friends or old. It is a long,
+low bank, five or six paces wide, highest in the middle, where the
+rather taller things are planted. These are mostly Junipers and
+Magnolias; of the Magnolias, the kinds are _Soulangeana_, _conspicua_,
+_purpurea_, and _stellata_. One end of the clump is all of peat earth;
+here are Andromedas, Skimmeas, and on the cooler side the broad-leaved
+Gale, whose crushed leaves have almost the sweetness of Myrtle. One long
+side of the clump faces south-west, the better to suit the things that
+love the sun. At the farther end is a thrifty bush of _Styrax japonica_,
+which flowers well in hot summers, but another bush under a south wall
+flowers better. It must be a lovely shrub in the south of Europe and
+perhaps in Cornwall; here the year's growth is always cut at the tip,
+but it flowers well on the older wood, and its hanging clusters of white
+bloom are lovely. At its foot, on the sunny side, are low bushy plants
+of _Cistus florentinus_. I am told that this specific name is not right;
+but the plant so commonly goes by it that it serves the purpose of
+popular identification. Then comes _Magnolia stellata_, now a
+perfectly-shaped bush five feet through, a sheet of sweet-scented bloom
+in April. Much too near it are two bushes of _Cistus ladaniferus_. They
+were put there as little plants to grow on for a year in the shelter and
+comfort of the warm bank, but were overlooked at the time they ought to
+have been shifted, and are now nearly five feet high, and are crowding
+the Magnolia. I cannot bear to take them away to waste, and they are
+much too large to transplant, so I am driving in some short stakes
+diagonally and tying them down by degrees, spreading out their branches
+between neighbouring plants. It is an upright-growing Cistus that would
+soon cover a tallish wall-space, but this time it must be content to
+grow horizontally, and I shall watch to see whether it will flower more
+freely, as so many things do when trained down.
+
+Next comes a patch of the handsome _Bambusa Ragamowski_, dwarf, but with
+strikingly-broad leaves of a bright yellow-green colour. It seems to be
+a slow grower, or more probably it is slow to grow at first; Bamboos
+have a good deal to do underground. It was planted six years ago, a nice
+little plant in a pot, and now is eighteen inches high and two feet
+across. Just beyond it is the Mastic bush (_Caryopteris mastacanthus_),
+a neat, grey-leaved small shrub, crowded in September with lavender-blue
+flowers, arranged in spikes something like a Veronica; the whole bush
+is aromatic, smelling strongly like highly-refined turpentine. Then
+comes _Xanthoceras sorbifolia_, a handsome bush from China, of rather
+recent introduction, with saw-edged pinnate leaves and white flowers
+earlier in the summer, but now forming its bunches of fruit that might
+easily be mistaken for walnuts with their green shucks on. Here a wide
+bushy growth of _Phlomis fruticosa_ lays out to the sun, covered in
+early summer with its stiff whorls of hooded yellow flowers--one of the
+best of plants for a sunny bank in full sun in a poor soil. A little
+farther along, and near the path, comes the neat little _Deutzia
+parviflora_ and another little shrub of fairy-like delicacy,
+_Philadelphus microphyllus_. Behind them is _Stephanandra flexuosa_,
+beautiful in foliage, and two good St. John's worts, _Hypericum aureum_
+and _H. Moserianum_, and again in front a Cistus of low, spreading
+growth, _C. halimifolius_, or something near it. One or two favourite
+kinds of Tree Pæonies, comfortably sheltered by Lavender bushes, fill up
+the other end of the clump next to the Andromedas. In all spare spaces
+on the sunny side of the shrub-clump is a carpeting of _Megasea
+ligulata_, a plant that looks well all the year round, and gives a
+quantity of precious flower for cutting in March and April.
+
+I was nearly forgetting _Pavia macrostachya_, now well established among
+the choice shrubs. It is like a bush Horse-chestnut, but more refined,
+the white spikes standing well up above the handsome leaves.
+
+On the cooler side of the clump is a longish planting of dwarf
+Andromeda, precious not only for its beauty of form and flower, but from
+the fine winter colouring of the leaves, and those two useful Spiræas,
+_S. Thunbergi_, with its countless little starry flowers, and the double
+_prunifolia_, the neat leaves of whose long sprays turn nearly scarlet
+in autumn. Then there comes a rather long stretch of _Artemisia
+Stelleriana_, a white-leaved plant much like _Cineraria maritima_,
+answering just the same purpose, but perfectly hardy. It is so much like
+the silvery _Cineraria_ that it is difficult to remember that it prefers
+a cool and even partly-shaded place.
+
+Beyond the long ridge that forms the shrub-clump is another, parallel to
+it and only separated from it by a path, also in the form of a long low
+bank. On the crown of this is the double row of cob-nuts that forms one
+side of the nut-alley. It leaves a low sunny bank that I have given to
+various Briar Roses and one or two other low, bushy kinds. Here is the
+wild Burnet Rose, with its yellow-white single flowers and large black
+hips, and its garden varieties, the Scotch Briars, double white,
+flesh-coloured, pink, rose, and yellow, and the hybrid briar, Stanwell
+Perpetual. Here also is the fine hybrid of _Rosa rugosa_, Madame George
+Bruant, and the lovely double _Rosa lucida_, and one or two kinds of
+small bush Roses from out-of-the-way gardens, and two wild Roses that
+have for me a special interest, as I collected them from their rocky
+home in the island of Capri. One is a Sweetbriar, in all ways like the
+native one, except that the flowers are nearly white, and the hips are
+larger. Last year the bush was distinctly more showy than any other of
+its kind, on account of the size and unusual quantity of the fruit. The
+other is a form of _Rosa sempervirens_, with rather large white flowers
+faintly tinged with yellow.
+
+[Illustration: LAVENDER HEDGE AND STEPS TO THE LOFT.]
+
+[Illustration: HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY.]
+
+Hollyhocks have been fine, in spite of the disease, which may be partly
+checked by very liberal treatment. By far the most beautiful is one of a
+pure pink colour, with a wide outer frill. It came first from a cottage
+garden, and has always since been treasured. I call it Pink Beauty. The
+wide outer petal (a heresy to the florist) makes the flower infinitely
+more beautiful than the all-over full-double form that alone is esteemed
+on the show-table. I shall hope in time to come upon the same shape of
+flower in white, sulphur, rose-colour, and deep blood-crimson, the
+colours most worth having in Hollyhocks.
+
+Lavender has been unusually fine; to reap its fragrant harvest is one of
+the many joys of the flower year. If it is to be kept and dried, it
+should be cut when as yet only a few of the purple blooms are out on the
+spike; if left too late, the flower shakes off the stalk too readily.
+
+Some plantations of _Lilium Harrisi_ and _Lilium auratum_ have turned
+out well. Some of the _Harrisi_ were grouped among tufts of the
+bright-foliaged _Funkia grandiflora_ on the cool side of a Yew hedge.
+Just at the foot of the hedge is _Tropæolum speciosum_, which runs up
+into it and flowers in graceful wreaths some feet above the ground. The
+masses of pure white lily and cool green foliage below are fine against
+the dark, solid greenery of the Yew, and the brilliant flowers above are
+like little jewels of flame. The Bermuda Lilies (_Harrisi_) are
+intergrouped with _L. speciosum_, which will follow them when their
+bloom is over. The _L. auratum_ were planted among groups of
+Rhododendrons; some of them are between tall Rhododendrons, and have
+large clumps of Lady Fern (_Filix foemina_) in front, but those that
+look best are between and among Bamboos (_B. Metake_); the heavy heads
+of flower borne on tall stems bend gracefully through the Bamboos, which
+just give them enough support.
+
+Here and there in the copse, among the thick masses of green Bracken, is
+a frond or two turning yellow. This always happens in the first or
+second week of August, though it is no indication of the approaching
+yellowing of the whole. But it is taken as a signal that the Fern is in
+full maturity, and a certain quantity is now cut to dry for protection
+and other winter uses. Dry Bracken lightly shaken over frames is a
+better protection than mats, and is almost as easily moved on and off.
+
+The Ling is now in full flower, and is more beautiful in the landscape
+than any of the garden Heaths; the relation of colouring, of greyish
+foliage and low-toned pink bloom with the dusky spaces of purplish-grey
+shadow, are a precious lesson to the colour-student.
+
+[Illustration: SOLOMON'S SEAL IN SPRING, IN THE UPPER PART OF THE
+FERN-WALK.]
+
+[Illustration: THE FERN-WALK IN AUGUST.]
+
+The fern-walk is at its best. It passes from the garden upwards to near
+the middle of the copse. The path, a wood-path of moss and grass and
+short-cut heath, is a little lower than the general level of the wood.
+The mossy bank, some nine feet wide, and originally cleared for the
+purpose, is planted with large groups of hardy Ferns, with a
+preponderance (due to preference) of Dilated Shield Fern and Lady Fern.
+Once or twice in the length of the bank are hollows, sinking at their
+lowest part to below the path-level, for _Osmunda_ and _Blechnum_. When
+rain is heavy enough to run down the path it finds its way into these
+hollow places.
+
+Among the groups of Fern are a few plants of true
+wood-character--_Linnæa_, _Trientalis_, _Goodyera_, and _Trillium_. At
+the back of the bank, and stretching away among the trees and underwood,
+are wide-spreading groups of Solomon's-seal and Wood-rush, joining in
+with the wild growth of Bracken and Bramble.
+
+Most of the Alpines and dwarf-growing plants, whose home is the
+rock-garden, bloom in May or June, but a few flower in early autumn. Of
+these one of the brightest is _Ruta patavina_, a dwarf plant with
+lemon-coloured flowers and a very neat habit of growth. It soon makes
+itself at home in a sunny bank in poor soil. _Pterocephalus parnassi_ is
+a dwarf Scabious, with small, grey foliage keeping close to the ground,
+and rather large flowers of a low-toned pink. The white Thyme is a
+capital plant, perfectly prostrate, and with leaves of a bright
+yellow-green, that with the white bloom give the plant a particularly
+fresh appearance. It looks at its best when trailing about little flat
+spaces between the neater of the hardy Ferns, and hanging over little
+rocky ledges. Somewhat farther back is the handsome dwarf _Platycodon
+Mariesi_, and behind it the taller Platycodons, among full-flowered
+bushes of _Olearia Haasti_.
+
+By the middle of August the garden assumes a character distinctly
+autumnal. Much of its beauty now depends on the many non-hardy plants,
+such as Gladiolus, Canna, and Dahlia, on Tritomas of doubtful hardiness,
+and on half-hardy annuals--Zinnia, Helichrysum, Sunflower, and French
+and African Marigold. Fine as are the newer forms of hybrid Gladiolus,
+the older strain of gandavensis hybrids are still the best as border
+flowers. In the large flower border, tall, well-shaped spikes of a good
+pink one look well shooting up through and between a wide-spreading
+patch of glaucous foliage of the smaller Yuccas, _Tritoma caulescens_,
+_Iris pallida_, and _Funkia Sieboldi_, while scarlet and salmon-coloured
+kinds are among groups of Pæonies that flowered in June, whose leaves
+are now taking a fine reddish colouring. Between these and the edge of
+the border is a straggling group some yards in length of the
+dark-foliaged _Heuchera Richardsoni_, that will hold its satin-surfaced
+leaves till the end of the year. Farther back in the border is a group
+of the scarlet-flowered Dahlia Fire King, and behind these, Dahlias Lady
+Ardilaun and Cochineal, of deeper scarlet colouring. The Dahlias are
+planted between groups of Oriental Poppy, that flower in May and then
+die away till late in autumn. Right and left of the scarlet group are
+Tritomas, intergrouped with Dahlias of moderate height, that have orange
+and flame-coloured flowers. This leads to some masses of flowers of
+strong yellow colouring; the old perennial Sunflower, in its tall single
+form, and the best variety of the old double one of moderate height, the
+useful _H. lætiflorus_ and the tall Miss Mellish, the giant form of
+_Harpalium rigidum_. _Rudbeckia Newmanni_ reflects the same strong colour
+in the front part of the border, and all spaces are filled with orange
+Zinnias and African Marigolds and yellow Helichrysum. As we pass along
+the border the colour changes to paler yellow by means of a pale
+perennial Sunflower and the sulphur-coloured annual kind, with Paris
+Daisies, _Oenothera Lamarkiana_ and _Verbascum phlomoides_. The two last
+were cut down to about four feet after their earliest bloom was over,
+and are now again full of profusely-flowered lateral growths. At the
+farther end of the border we come again to glaucous foliage and
+pale-pink flower of Gladiolus and Japan Anemone. It is important in such
+a border of rather large size, that can be seen from a good space of
+lawn, to keep the flowers in rather large masses of colour. No one who
+has ever done it, or seen it done, will go back to the old haphazard
+sprinkle of colouring without any thought of arrangement, such as is
+usually seen in a mixed border. There is a wall of sandstone backing the
+border, also planted in relation to the colour-massing in the front
+space. This gives a quiet background of handsome foliage, with always in
+the flower season some show of colour in one part or another of its
+length. Just now the most conspicuous of its clothing shrubs or of the
+somewhat tall growing flowers at its foot are a fine variety of
+_Bignonia radicans_, a hardy Fuchsia, the Claret Vine covering a good
+space, with its red-bronze leaves and clusters of blue-black grapes, the
+fine hybrid Crinums and _Clerodendron foetidum_.
+
+Tea Roses have been unusually lavish of autumn bloom, and some of the
+garden climbing Roses, hybrids of China and Noisette, have been of great
+beauty, both growing and as room decoration. Many of them flower in
+bunches at the end of the shoots; whole branches, cut nearly three feet
+long, make charming arrangements in tall glasses or high vases of
+Oriental china. Perhaps their great autumnal vigour is a reaction from
+the check they received in the earlier part of the year, when the bloom
+was almost a failure from the long drought and the accompanying attacks
+of blight and mildew. The great hips of the Japanese _Rosa rugosa_ are
+in perfection; they have every ornamental quality--size, form, colour,
+texture, and a delicate waxlike bloom; their pulp is thick and luscious,
+and makes an excellent jam.
+
+The quantity of fungous growth this year is quite remarkable. The late
+heavy rain coming rather suddenly on the well-warmed earth has no doubt
+brought about their unusual size and abundance; in some woodland places
+one can hardly walk without stepping upon them. Many spots in the copse
+are brilliant with large groups of the scarlet-capped Fly Agaric
+(_Amanita muscaria_). It comes out of the ground looking like a dark
+scarlet ball, generally flecked with raised whitish spots; it quickly
+rises on its white stalk, the ball changing to a brilliant flat disc,
+six or seven inches across, and lasting several days in beauty. But the
+most frequent fungus is the big brown _Boletus_, in size varying from a
+small bun to a dinner-plate. Some kinds are edible, but I have never
+been inclined to try them, being deterred by their coarse look and
+uninviting coat of slimy varnish. And why eat doubtful _Boletus_ when
+one can have the delicious Chantarelle (_Cantharellus cibarius_), also
+now at its best? In colour and smell it is like a ripe apricot,
+perfectly wholesome, and, when rightly cooked, most delicate in flavour
+and texture. It should be looked for in cool hollows in oak woods; when
+once found and its good qualities appreciated, it will never again be
+neglected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SEPTEMBER
+
+Sowing Sweet Peas -- Autumn-sown annuals -- Dahlias -- Worthless kinds
+-- Staking -- Planting the rock-garden -- Growing small plants in a wall
+-- The old wall -- Dry-walling -- How built -- How planted -- Hyssop --
+A destructive storm -- Berries of Water-elder -- Beginning ground-work.
+
+
+In the second week of September we sow Sweet Peas in shallow trenches.
+The flowers from these are larger and stronger and come in six weeks
+earlier than from those sown in the spring; they come too at a time when
+they are especially valuable for cutting. Many other hardy Annuals are
+best sown now. Some indeed, such as the lovely _Collinsia verna_ and the
+large white Iberis, only do well if autumn-sown. Among others, some of
+the most desirable are Nemophila, Platystemon, Love-in-a-Mist,
+Larkspurs, Pot Marigold, Virginian Stock, and the delightful Venus's
+Navel-wort (_Omphalodes linifolia_). I always think this daintily
+beautiful plant is undeservedly neglected, for how seldom one sees it.
+It is full of the most charming refinement, with its milk-white bloom
+and grey-blue leaf and neat habit of growth. Any one who has never
+before tried Annuals autumn-sown would be astonished at their vigour. A
+single plant of Nemophila will often cover a square yard with its
+beautiful blue bloom; and then, what a gain it is to have these pretty
+things in full strength in spring and early summer, instead of waiting
+to have them in a much poorer state later in the year, when other
+flowers are in plenty.
+
+Hardy Poppies should be sown even earlier; August is the best time.
+
+Dahlias are now at their full growth. To make a choice for one's own
+garden, one must see the whole plant growing. As with many another kind
+of flower, nothing is more misleading than the evidence of the
+show-table, for many that there look the best, and are indeed lovely in
+form and colour as individual blooms, come from plants that are of no
+garden value. For however charming in humanity is the virtue modesty,
+and however becoming is the unobtrusive bearing that gives evidence of
+its possession, it is quite misplaced in a Dahlia. Here it becomes a
+vice, for the Dahlia's first duty in life is to flaunt and to swagger
+and to carry gorgeous blooms well above its leaves, and on no account to
+hang its head. Some of the delicately-coloured kinds lately raised not
+only hang their heads, but also hide them away among masses of their
+coarse foliage, and are doubly frauds, looking everything that is
+desirable in the show, and proving worthless in the garden. It is true
+that there are ways of cutting out superfluous green stuff and thereby
+encouraging the blooms to show up, but at a busy season, when rank
+leafage grows fast, one does not want to be every other day tinkering at
+the Dahlias.
+
+Careful and strong staking they must always have, not forgetting one
+central stake to secure the main growth at first. It is best to drive
+this into the hole made for the plant before placing the root, to avoid
+the danger of sending the point of the stake through the tender tubers.
+Its height out of the ground should be about eighteen inches less than
+the expected stature of the plant. As the Dahlia grows, there should be
+at least three outer stakes at such distance from the middle one as may
+suit the bulk and habit of the plant; and it is a good plan to have
+wooden hoops to tie to these, so as to form a girdle round the whole
+plant, and for tying out the outer branches. The hoop should be only
+loosely fastened--best with roomy loops of osier, so that it may be
+easily shifted up with the growth of the plant. We make the hoops in the
+winter of long straight rent rods of Spanish Chestnut, bending them
+while green round a tub, and tying them with tarred twine or osier
+bands. They last several years. All this care in staking the Dahlias is
+labour well bestowed, for when autumn storms come the wind has such a
+power of wrenching and twisting, that unless the plant, now grown into a
+heavy mass of succulent vegetation, is braced by firm fixing at the
+sides, it is in danger of being broken off short just above the ground,
+where its stem has become almost woody, and therefore brittle.
+
+Now is the moment to get to work on the rock-garden; there is no time of
+year so precious for this work as September. Small things planted now,
+while the ground is still warm, grow at the root at once, and get both
+anchor-hold and feeding-hold of the ground before frost comes. Those
+that are planted later do not take hold, and every frost heaves them up,
+sometimes right out of the ground. Meanwhile those that have got a firm
+root-hold are growing steadily all the winter, underground if not above;
+and when the first spring warmth comes they can draw upon the reserve of
+strength they have been hoarding up, and make good growth at once.
+
+Except in the case of a rockery only a year old, there is sure to be
+some part that wants to be worked afresh, and I find it convenient to do
+about a third of the space every year. Many of the indispensable Alpines
+and rock-plants of lowly growth increase at a great rate, some spreading
+over much more than their due space, the very reason of this
+quick-spreading habit being that they are travelling to fresh pasture;
+many of them prove it clearly by dying away in the middle of the patch,
+and only showing vigorous vitality at the edges.
+
+Such plants as _Silene alpestris_, _Hutchinsia alpina_, _Pterocephalus_,
+the dwarf alpine kinds of _Achillea_ and _Artemisia_, _Veronica_ and
+_Linaria_, and the mossy Saxifrages, in my soil want transplanting every
+two years, and the silvery Saxifrages every three years. As in much
+else, one must watch what happens in one's own garden. We practical
+gardeners have no absolute knowledge of the constitution of the plant,
+still less of the chemistry of the soil, but by the constant exercise of
+watchful care and helpful sympathy we acquire a certain degree of
+instinctive knowledge, which is as valuable in its way, and probably
+more applicable to individual local conditions, than the tabulated
+formulas of more orthodox science.
+
+One of the best and simplest ways of growing rock-plants is in a loose
+wall. In many gardens an abrupt change of level makes a retaining wall
+necessary, and when I see this built in the usual way as a solid
+structure of brick and mortar--unless there be any special need of the
+solid wall--I always regret that it is not built as a home for
+rock-plants. An exposure to north or east and the cool backing of a mass
+of earth is just what most Alpines delight in. A dry wall, which means a
+wall without mortar, may be anything between a wall and a very steep
+rock-work, and may be built of brick or of any kind of local stone. I
+have built and planted a good many hundred yards of dry walling with my
+own hands, both at home and in other gardens, and can speak with some
+confidence both of the pleasure and interest of the actual making and
+planting, and of the satisfactory results that follow.
+
+The best example I have to show in my own garden is the so-called "Old
+Wall," before mentioned. It is the bounding and protecting fence of the
+Pæony ground on its northern side, and consists of a double dry wall
+with earth between. An old hedge bank that was to come away was not far
+off, within easy wheeling distance. So the wall was built up on each
+side, and as it grew, the earth from the hedge was barrowed in to fill
+up. A dry wall needs very little foundation; two thin courses
+underground are quite enough. The point of most structural importance is
+to keep the earth solidly trodden and rammed behind the stones of each
+course and throughout its bulk, and every two or three courses to lay
+some stones that are extra long front and back, to tie the wall well
+into the bank. A local sandstone is the walling material. In the pit it
+occurs in separate layers, with a few feet of hard sand between each.
+The lowest layer, sometimes thirty to forty feet down, is the best and
+thickest, but that is good building stone, and for dry walling we only
+want "tops" or "seconds," the later and younger formations of stone in
+the quarry. The very roughness and almost rotten state of much of this
+stone makes it all the more acceptable as nourishment and root-hold to
+the tiny plants that are to grow in its chinks, and that in a few months
+will change much of the rough rock-surface to green growth of delicate
+vegetation. Moreover, much of the soft sandy stone hardens by exposure
+to weather; and even if a stone or two crumbles right away in a few
+years' time, the rest will hold firmly, and the space left will make a
+little cave where some small fern will live happily.
+
+The wall is planted as it is built with hardy Ferns--_Blechnum_,
+Polypody, Hartstongue, _Adiantum_, _Ceterach_, _Asplenium_, and _Ruta
+muraria_. The last three like lime, so a barrow of old mortar-rubbish is
+at hand, and the joint where they are to be planted has a layer of their
+favourite soil. Each course is laid fairly level as to its front top
+edge, stones of about the same thickness going in course by course. The
+earth backing is then carefully rammed into the spaces at the uneven
+backs of the stones, and a thin layer of earth over the whole course,
+where the mortar would have been in a built wall, gives both a "bed" for
+the next row of stones and soil for the plants that are to grow in the
+joints.
+
+[Illustration: JACK. (_See page 79._)]
+
+[Illustration: THE "OLD WALL."]
+
+The face of the wall slopes backward on both sides, so that its whole
+thickness of five feet at the bottom draws in to four feet at the top.
+All the stones are laid at a right angle to the plane of the
+inclination--that is to say, each stone tips a little down at the back,
+and its front edge, instead of being upright, faces a little upward. It
+follows that every drop of gentle rain that falls on either side of the
+wall is carried into the joints, following the backward and downward
+pitch of the stones, and then into the earth behind them.
+
+The mass of earth in the middle of the wall gives abundant root-room for
+bushes, and is planted with bush Roses of three kinds, of which the
+largest mass is of _Rosa lucida_. Then there is a good stretch of
+Berberis; then Scotch Briars, and in one or two important places
+Junipers; then more Berberis, and Ribes, and the common Barberry, and
+neat bushes of _Olearia Haastii_.
+
+The wall was built seven years ago, and is now completely clothed. It
+gives me a garden on the top and a garden on each side, and though its
+own actual height is only 4-1/2 feet, yet the bushes on the top make it
+a sheltering hedge from seven to ten feet high. One small length of
+three or four yards of the top has been kept free of larger bushes, and
+is planted on its northern edge with a very neat and pretty dwarf kind
+of Lavender, while on the sunny side is a thriving patch of the hardy
+Cactus (_Opuntia Raffinesquiana_). Just here, in the narrow border at
+the foot of the wall, is a group of the beautiful _Crinum Powelli_,
+while a white Jasmine clothes the face of the wall right and left, and
+rambles into the Barberry bushes just beyond. It so happened that these
+things had been planted close together because the conditions of the
+place were likely to favour them, and not, as is my usual practice, with
+any intentional idea of harmonious grouping. I did not even remember
+that they all flower in July, and at nearly the same time; and one day
+seeing them all in bloom together, I was delighted to see the success of
+the chance arrangement, and how pretty it all was, for I should never
+have thought of grouping together pink and lavender, yellow and white.
+
+The northern face of the wall, beginning at its eastern end, is planted
+thus: For a length of ten or twelve paces there are Ferns, Polypody and
+Hartstongue, and a few _Adiantum nigrum_, with here and there a Welsh
+Poppy. There is a clump of the wild Stitchwort that came by itself, and
+is so pretty that I leave it. At the foot of the wall are the same, but
+more of the Hartstongue; and here it grows best, for not only is the
+place cooler, but I gave it some loamy soil, which it loves. Farther
+along the Hartstongue gives place to the wild Iris (_I. foetidissima_),
+a good long stretch of it. Nothing, to my mind, looks better than these
+two plants at the base of a wall on the cool side. In the upper part of
+the wall are various Ferns, and that interesting plant, Wall Pennywort
+(_Cotyledon umbilicus_). It is a native plant, but not found in this
+neighbourhood; I brought it from Cornwall, where it is so plentiful in
+the chinks of the granite stone-fences. It sows itself and grows afresh
+year after year, though I always fear to lose it in one of our dry
+summers. Next comes the common London Pride, which I think quite the
+most beautiful of the Saxifrages of this section. If it was a rare
+thing, what a fuss we should make about it! The place is a little dry
+for it, but all the same, it makes a handsome spreading tuft hanging
+over the face of the wall. When its pink cloud of bloom is at its best,
+I always think it the prettiest thing in the garden. Then there is the
+Yellow Everlasting (_Gnaphalium orientale_), a fine plant for the upper
+edge of the wall, and even better on the sunny side, and the white form
+of _Campanula cæspitosa_, with its crowd of delicate little white
+bells rising in June, from the neatest foliage of tender but lively
+green. Then follow deep-hanging curtains of Yellow Alyssum and of hybrid
+rock Pinks. The older plants of Alyssum are nearly worn out, but there
+are plenty of promising young seedlings in the lower joints.
+
+[Illustration: ERINUS ALPINUS, CLOTHING STEPS IN ROCK-WALL.]
+
+Throughout the wall there are patches of Polypody Fern, one of the best
+of cool wall-plants, its creeping root-stock always feeling its way
+along the joints, and steadily furnishing the wall with more and more of
+its neat fronds; it is all the more valuable for being at its best in
+early winter, when so few ferns are to be seen. Every year, in some bare
+places, I sow a little seed of _Erinus alpinus_, always trying for
+places where it will follow some other kind of plant, such as a place
+where rock Pink or Alyssum has been. All plants are the better for this
+sort of change. In the seven years that the wall has stood, the stones
+have become weathered, and the greater part of the north side, wherever
+the stone work shows, is hoary with mosses, and looks as if it might
+have been standing for a hundred years.
+
+The sunny side is nearly clear of moss, and I have planted very few
+things in its face, because the narrow border at its foot is so precious
+for shrubs and plants that like a warm, sheltered place. Here are
+several Choisyas and Sweet Verbenas, also _Escallonia_, _Stuartia_, and
+_Styrax_, and a long straggling group of some very fine Pentstemons. In
+one space that was fairly clear I planted a bit of Hyssop, an old sweet
+herb whose scent I delight in; it grows into a thick bush-like plant
+full of purple flower in the late summer, when it attracts quantities of
+bumble-bees. It is a capital wall-plant, and has sown its own seed, till
+there is a large patch on the top and some in its face, and a
+broadly-spreading group in the border below. It is one of the plants
+that was used in the old Tudor gardens for edgings; the growth is close
+and woody at the base, and it easily bears clipping into shape.
+
+The fierce gales and heavy rains of the last days of September wrought
+sad havoc among the flowers. Dahlias were virtually wrecked. Though each
+plant had been tied to three stakes, their masses of heavy growth could
+not resist the wrenching and twisting action of the wind, and except in
+a few cases where they were well sheltered, their heads lay on the
+ground, the stems broken down at the last tie. If anything about a
+garden could be disheartening, it would be its aspect after such a storm
+of wind. Wall shrubs, only lately made safe, as we thought, have great
+gaps torn out of them, though tied with tarred string to strong iron
+staples, staples and all being wrenched out. Everything looks battered,
+and whipped, and ashamed; branches of trees and shrubs lie about far
+from their sources of origin; green leaves and little twigs are washed
+up into thick drifts; apples and quinces, that should have hung till
+mid-October, lie bruised and muddy under the trees. Newly-planted roses
+and hollies have a funnel-shaped hole worked in the ground at their
+base, showing the power of the wind to twist their heads, and giving
+warning of a corresponding disturbance of the tender roots. There is
+nothing to be done but to look round carefully and search out all
+disasters and repair them as well as may be, and to sweep up the
+wreckage and rubbish, and try to forget the rough weather, and enjoy the
+calm beauty of the better days that follow, and hope that it may be long
+before such another angry storm is sent. And indeed a few quiet days of
+sunshine and mild temperature work wonders. In a week one would hardly
+know that the garden had been so cruelly torn about. Fresh flowers take
+the place of bruised ones, and wholesome young growths prove the
+enduring vitality of vegetable life. Still we cannot help feeling,
+towards the end of September, that the flower year is nearly at an end,
+though the end is a gorgeous one, with its strong yellow masses of the
+later perennial Sunflowers and Marigolds, Goldenrod, and a few belated
+Gladioli; the brilliant foliage of Virginian Creepers, the leaf-painting
+of _Vitis Coignettii_, and the strong crimson of the Claret Vine.
+
+The Water-elder (_Viburnum opulus_) now makes a brave show in the edge
+of the copse. It is without doubt the most beautiful berry-bearing shrub
+of mid-September. The fruit hangs in ample clusters from the point of
+every branch and of every lateral twig, in colour like the brightest of
+red currants, but with a translucent lustre that gives each separate
+berry a much brighter look; the whole bush shows fine warm colouring,
+the leaves having turned to a rich red. Perhaps it is because it is a
+native that this grand shrub or small tree is generally neglected in
+gardens, and is almost unknown in nurserymen's catalogues. It is the
+parent of the well-known Guelder-Rose, which is merely its
+double-flowered form. But the double flower leaves no berry, its
+familiar white ball being formed of the sterile part of the flower only,
+and the foliage of the garden kind does not assume so bright an autumn
+colouring.
+
+The nights are growing chilly, with even a little frost, and the work
+for the coming season of dividing and transplanting hardy plants has
+already begun. Plans are being made for any improvements or alterations
+that involve ground work. Already we have been at work on some broad
+grass rides through the copse that were roughly levelled and laid with
+grass last winter. The turf has been raised and hollows filled in, grass
+seed sown in bare patches, and the whole beaten and rolled to a good
+surface, and the job put out of hand in good time before the leaves
+begin to fall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+OCTOBER
+
+Michaelmas Daisies -- Arranging and staking -- Spindle-tree -- Autumn
+colour of Azaleas -- Quinces -- Medlars -- Advantage of early planting
+of shrubs -- Careful planting -- Pot-bound roots -- Cypress hedge --
+Planting in difficult places -- Hardy flower border -- Lifting Dahlias
+-- Dividing hardy plants -- Dividing tools -- Plants difficult to divide
+-- Periwinkles -- Sternbergia -- Czar Violets -- Deep cultivation for
+_Lilium giganteum_.
+
+
+The early days of October bring with them the best bloom of the
+Michaelmas Daisies, the many beautiful garden kinds of the perennial
+Asters. They have, as they well deserve to have, a garden to themselves.
+Passing along the wide path in front of the big flower border, and
+through the pergola that forms its continuation, with eye and brain full
+of rich, warm colouring of flower and leaf, it is a delightful surprise
+to pass through the pergola's last right-hand opening, and to come
+suddenly upon the Michaelmas Daisy garden in full beauty. Its clean,
+fresh, pure colouring, of pale and dark lilac, strong purple, and pure
+white, among masses of pale-green foliage, forms a contrast almost
+startling after the warm colouring of nearly everything else; and the
+sight of a region where the flowers are fresh and newly opened, and in
+glad spring-like profusion, when all else is on the verge of death and
+decay, gives an impression of satisfying refreshment that is hardly to
+be equalled throughout the year. Their special garden is a wide border
+on each side of a path, its length bounded on one side by a tall hedge
+of filberts, and on the other side by clumps of yew, holly, and other
+shrubs. It is so well sheltered that the strongest wind has its
+destructive power broken, and only reaches it as a refreshing
+tree-filtered breeze. The Michaelmas Daisies are replanted every year as
+soon as their bloom is over, the ground having been newly dug and
+manured. The old roots, which will have increased about fourfold, are
+pulled or chopped to pieces, nice bits with about five crowns being
+chosen for replanting; these are put in groups of three to five
+together. Tall-growing kinds like _Novi Belgi_ Robert Parker are kept
+rather towards the back, while those of delicate and graceful habit,
+such as _Cordifolius elegans_ and its good variety Diana are allowed to
+come forward. The fine dwarf _Aster amellus_ is used in rather large
+quantity, coming quite to the front in some places, and running in and
+out between the clumps of other kinds. Good-sized groups of _Pyrethrum
+uliginosum_ are given a place among the Asters, for though of quite
+another family, they are Daisies, and bloom at Michaelmas, and are
+admirable companions to the main occupants of the borders. The only
+other plants admitted are white Dahlias, the two differently striped
+varieties of _Eulalia japonica_, the fresh green foliage of Indian
+Corn, and the brilliant light-green leafage of _Funkia grandiflora_.
+Great attention is paid to staking the Asters. Nothing is more
+deplorable than to see a neglected, overgrown plant, at the last moment,
+when already half blown down, tied up in a tight bunch to one stake.
+When we are cutting underwood in the copse in the winter, special
+branching spray is looked out for our Michaelmas Daisies and cut about
+four feet or five feet long, with one main stem and from two to five
+branches. Towards the end of June and beginning of July these are thrust
+firmly into the ground among the plants, and the young growths are tied
+out so as to show to the best advantage. Good kinds of Michaelmas
+Daisies are now so numerous that in selecting those for the special
+garden it is well to avoid both the ones that bloom earliest and also
+the very latest, so that for about three weeks the borders may show a
+well-filled mass of bloom.
+
+[Illustration: BORDERS OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES.]
+
+The bracken in the copse stands dry and dead, but when leaves are
+fluttering down and the chilly days of mid-October are upon us, its
+warm, rusty colouring is certainly cheering; the green of the freshly
+grown mossy carpet below looks vividly bright by contrast. Some bushes
+of Spindle-tree (_Euonymus europæus_) are loaded with their rosy
+seed-pods; some are already burst, and show the orange-scarlet seeds--an
+audacity of colouring that looks all the brighter for the even,
+lustreless green of the leaves and of the green-barked twigs and stems.
+
+The hardy Azaleas are now blazing masses of crimson, almost scarlet
+leaf; the old _A. pontica_, with its large foliage, is as bright as any.
+With them are grouped some of the North American Vacciniums and
+Andromedas, with leaves almost as bright. The ground between the groups
+of shrubs is knee-deep in heath. The rusty-coloured withered bloom of
+the wild heath on its purplish-grey masses and the surrounding banks of
+dead fern make a groundwork and background of excellent colour-harmony.
+
+How seldom does one see Quinces planted for ornament, and yet there is
+hardly any small tree that better deserves such treatment. Some Quinces
+planted about eight years ago are now perfect pictures, their lissome
+branches borne down with the load of great, deep-yellow fruit, and their
+leaves turning to a colour almost as rich and glowing. The old English
+rather round-fruited kind with the smooth skin is the best both for
+flavour and beauty--a mature tree without leaves in winter has a
+remarkably graceful, arching, almost weeping growth. The other kind is
+of a rather more rigid form, and though its woolly-coated, pear-shaped
+fruits are larger and strikingly handsome, the whole tree has a coarser
+look, and just lacks the attractive grace of the other. They will do
+fairly well almost anywhere, though they prefer a rich, loamy soil and a
+cool, damp, or even swampy place. The Medlar is another of the small
+fruiting trees that is more neglected than it should be, as it well
+deserves a place among ornamental shrubs. Here it is a precious thing
+in the region where garden melts into copse. The fruit-laden twigs are
+just now very attractive, and its handsome leaves can never be passed
+without admiration. Close to the Medlars is a happy intergrowth of the
+wild Guelder-Rose, still bearing its brilliant clusters, a
+strong-growing and far-clambering garden form of _Rosa arvensis_, full
+of red hips, Sweetbriar, and Holly--a happy tangle of red-fruited
+bushes, all looking as if they were trying to prove, in friendly
+emulation, which can make the bravest show of red-berried wild-flung
+wreath, or bending spray, or stately spire; while at their foot the
+bright colour is repeated by the bending, berried heads of the wild
+Iris, opening like fantastic dragons' mouths, and pouring out the red
+bead-like seeds upon the ground; and, as if to make the picture still
+more complete, the leaves of the wild Strawberry that cover the ground
+with a close carpet have also turned to a crimson, and here and there to
+an almost scarlet colour.
+
+During the year I make careful notes of any trees or shrubs that will be
+wanted, either to come from the nursery or to be transplanted within my
+own ground, so as to plant them as early as possible. Of the two
+extremes it is better to plant too early than too late. I would rather
+plant deciduous trees before the leaves are off than wait till after
+Christmas, but of all planting times the best is from the middle of
+October till the end of November, and the same time is the best for all
+hardy plants of large or moderate size.
+
+I have no patience with slovenly planting. I like to have the ground
+prepared some months in advance, and when the proper time comes, to do
+the actual planting as well as possible. The hole in the already
+prepared ground is taken out so that the tree shall stand exactly right
+for depth, though in this dry soil it is well to make the hole an inch
+or two deeper, in order to leave the tree standing in the centre of a
+shallow depression, to allow of a good watering now and then during the
+following summer. The hole must be made wide enough to give easy space
+for the most outward-reaching of the roots; they must be spread out on
+all sides, carefully combing them out with the fingers, so that they all
+lay out to the best advantage. Any roots that have been bruised, or have
+broken or jagged ends, are cut off with a sharp knife on the homeward
+side of the injury. Most gardeners when they plant, after the first
+spadeful or two has been thrown over the root, shake the bush with an up
+and down joggling movement. This is useful in the case of plants with a
+good lot of bushy root, such as Berberis, helping to get the grains of
+earth well in among the root; but in tree planting, where the roots are
+laid out flat, it is of course useless. In our light soil, the closer
+and firmer the earth is made round the newly-planted tree the better,
+and strong staking is most important, in order to save the newly-placed
+root from disturbance by dragging.
+
+Some trees and shrubs one can only get from nurseries in pots. This is
+usually the case with Ilex, Escallonia, and Cydonia. Such plants are
+sure to have the roots badly matted and twisted. The main root curls
+painfully round and round inside the imprisoning pot, but if it is a
+clever root it works its way out through the hole in the bottom, and
+even makes quite nice roots in the bed of ashes it has stood on. In this
+case, as these are probably its best roots, we do not attempt to pull it
+back through the hole, but break the pot to release it without hurt. If
+it is possible to straighten the pot-curled root, it is best to do so;
+in any case, the small fibrous ones can be laid out. Often the potful of
+roots is so hard and tight that it cannot be disentangled by the hand;
+then the only way is to soften it by gentle bumping on the bench, and
+then to disengage the roots by little careful digs all round with a
+blunt-pointed stick. If this is not done, and the plant is put in in its
+pot-bound state, it never gets on; it would be just as well to throw it
+away at once.
+
+Nine years ago a hedge of Lawson's Cypress was planted on one side of
+the kitchen garden. Three years later, when the trees had made some
+growth, I noticed in the case of three or four that they were quite bare
+of branches on one side all the way up for a width of about one-sixth of
+the circumference, leaving a smooth, straight, upright strip. Suspecting
+the cause, I had them up, and found in every case that the root just
+below the bare strip had been doubled under the stem, and had therefore
+been unable to do its share of the work. Nothing could have pointed out
+more clearly the defect in the planting.
+
+There are cases where ground cannot be prepared as one would wish, and
+where one has to get over the difficulty the best way one can. Such a
+case occurred when I had to plant some Yews and Savins right under a
+large Birch-tree. The Birch is one of several large ones that nearly
+surround the lawn. This one stands just within the end of a large
+shrub-clump, near the place of meeting of some paths with the grass and
+with some planting; here some further planting was wanted of dark-leaved
+evergreens. There is no tree more ground-robbing than a Birch, and under
+the tree in question the ground was dust-dry, extremely hard, and
+nothing but the poorest sand. Looking at the foot of a large tree one
+can always see which way the main roots go, and the only way to get down
+any depth is to go between these and not many feet away from the trunk.
+Farther away the roots spread out and would receive more injury. So the
+ground was got up the best way we could, and the Yews and Savins
+planted. Now, after some six years, they are healthy and dark-coloured,
+and have made good growth. But in such a place one cannot expect the
+original preparation of the ground, such as it was, to go for much. The
+year after planting they had some strong, lasting manure just pricked in
+over the roots--stuff from the shoeing-forge, full of hoof-parings.
+Hoof-parings are rich in ammonia, and decay slowly. Every other year
+they have either a repetition of this or some cooling cow manure. The
+big Birch no doubt gets some of it, though its hungriest roots are
+farther afield, but the rich colour of the shrubs shows that they are
+well nourished.
+
+As soon as may be in November the big hardy flower-border has to be
+thoroughly looked over. The first thing is to take away all "soft
+stuff." This includes all dead annuals and biennials and any tender
+things that have been put in for the summer, also Paris Daisies,
+Zinnias, French and African Marigolds, Helichrysums, Mulleins, and a few
+Geraniums. Then Dahlias are cut down. The waste stuff is laid in big
+heaps on the edge of the lawn just across the footpath, to be loaded
+into the donkey-cart and shot into some large holes that have been dug
+up in the wood, whose story will be told later.
+
+The Dahlias are now dug up from the border, and others collected from
+different parts of the garden. The labels are tied on to the short
+stumps that remain, and the roots are laid for a time on the floor of a
+shed. If the weather has been rainy just before taking them up, it is
+well to lay them upside down, so that any wet there may be about the
+bases of the large hollow stalks may drain out. They are left for
+perhaps a fortnight without shaking out the earth that holds between the
+tubers, so that they may be fairly dry before they are put away for the
+winter in a cellar.
+
+Then we go back to the flower border and dig out all the plants that
+have to be divided every year. It will also be the turn for some others
+that only want division every two or three or more years, as the case
+may be. First, out come all the perennial Sunflowers. These divide
+themselves into two classes; those whose roots make close clumpy masses,
+and those that throw out long stolons ending in a blunt snout, which is
+the growing crown for next year. To the first division belong the old
+double Sunflower (_Helianthus multiflorus_), of which I only keep the
+well-shaped variety Soleil d'Or, and the much taller large-flowered
+single kind, and a tall pale-yellow flowered one with a dark stem, whose
+name I do not know. It is not one of the kinds thought much of, and as
+usually grown has not much effect; but I plant it at the back and pull
+it down over other plants that have gone out of flower, so that instead
+of having only a few flowers at the top of a rather bare stem eight feet
+high, it is a spreading cloud of pale yellow bloom; the training down,
+as in the case of so many other plants, inducing it to throw up a short
+flowering stalk from the axil of every leaf along the stem. The kinds
+with the running roots are _Helianthus rigidus_, and its giant variety
+Miss Mellish, _H. decapetalus_ and _H. lætiflorus_. I do not know how it
+may be in other gardens, but in mine these must be replanted every year.
+
+Phloxes must also be taken up. They are always difficult here, unless
+the season is unusually rainy; in dry summers, even with mulching and
+watering, I cannot keep them from drying up. The outside pieces are cut
+off and the woody middle thrown away. It is surprising what a tiny bit
+of Phlox will make a strong flowering plant in one season. The kinds I
+like best are the pure whites and the salmon-reds; but two others that I
+find very pretty and useful are Eugénie, a good mauve, and Le Soleil, a
+strong pink, of a colour as near a really good pink as in any Phlox I
+know. Both of these have a neat and rather short habit of growth. I do
+not have many Michaelmas Daisies in the flower border, only some early
+ones that flower within September; of these there are the white-flowered
+_A. paniculatus_, _Shortii_, _acris_, and _amellus_. These of course
+come up, and any patches of Gladiolus are collected, to be dried for a
+time and then stored.
+
+The next thing is to look through the border for the plants that require
+occasional renewal. In the front I find that a longish patch of
+_Heuchera Richardsoni_ has about half the plants overgrown. These must
+come up, and are cut to pieces. It is not a nice plant to divide; it has
+strong middle crowns, and though there are many side ones, they are
+attached to the main ones too high up to have roots of their own; but I
+boldly slice down the main stocky stem with straight downward cuts, so
+as to give a piece of the thick stock to each side bit. I have done this
+both in winter and spring, and find the spring rather the best, if not
+followed by drought. Groups of _Anemone japonica_ and of _Polygonum
+compactum_ are spreading beyond bounds and must be reduced. Neither of
+these need be entirely taken up. Without going into further detail, it
+may be of use to note how often I find it advisable to lift and divide
+some of the more prominent hardy plants.
+
+Every year I divide Michaelmas Daisies, Goldenrod, _Helianthus_,
+_Phlox_, _Chrysanthemum maximum_, _Helenium pumilum_, _Pyrethrum
+uliginosum_, _Anthemis tinctoria_, _Monarda_, _Lychnis_, _Primula_,
+except _P. denticulata_, _rosea_, and _auricula_, which stand two years.
+
+Every two years, White Pinks, Cranesbills, _Spiræa_, _Aconitum_,
+_Gaillardia_, _Coreopsis_, _Chrysanthemum indicum_, _Galega_,
+_Doronicum_, _Nepeta_, _Geum aureum_, _Oenothera Youngi_, and _Oe.
+riparia_.
+
+Every three years, _Tritoma_, _Megasea_, _Centranthus_, _Vinca_, _Iris_,
+_Narcissus_.
+
+A plasterer's hammer is a tool that is very handy for dividing plants.
+It has a hammer on one side of the head, and a cutting blade like a
+small chopper on the other. With this and a cold chisel and a strong
+knife one can divide any roots in comfort. I never divide things by
+brutally chopping them across with a spade. Plants that have soft fleshy
+tubers like Dahlias and Pæonies want the cold chisel; it can be cleverly
+inserted among the crowns so that injury to the tubers is avoided, and
+it is equally useful in the case of some plants whose points of
+attachment are almost as hard as wire, like _Orobus vernus_, or as
+tough as a door-mat, like _Iris graminia_. The Michaelmas Daisies of
+the _Novæ Angliæ_ section make root tufts too close and hard to be cut
+with a knife, and here the chopper of the plasterer's hammer comes in.
+Where the crowns are closely crowded, as in this Aster, I find it best
+to chop at the bottom of the tuft, among the roots; when the chopper has
+cut about two-thirds through, the tuft can be separated with the hands,
+dividing naturally between the crowns, whereas if chopped from the top
+many crowns would have been spoilt.
+
+Tritomas want dividing with care; it always looks as if one could pull
+every crown apart, but there is a tender point at the "collar," where
+they easily break off short; with these also it is best to chop from
+below or to use the chisel, making the cut well down in the yellow rooty
+region. Veratrums divide much in the same way, wanting a careful cut low
+down, the points of their crowns being also very easy to break off. The
+Christmas Rose is one of the most awkward plants to divide successfully.
+It cannot be done in a hurry. The only safe way is to wash the clumps
+well out and look carefully for the points of attachment, and cut them
+either with knife or chisel, according to their position. In this case
+the chisel should be narrower and sharper. Three-year-old tufts of St.
+Bruno's Lily puzzled me at first. The rather fleshy roots are so tightly
+interlaced that cutting is out of the question; but I found out that if
+the tuft is held tight in the two hands, and the hands are worked
+opposite ways with a rotary motion of about a quarter of a circle, that
+they soon come apart without being hurt in the least. Delphiniums easily
+break off at the crown if they are broken up by hand, but the roots cut
+so easily that it ought not to be a difficulty.
+
+There are some plants in whose case one can never be sure whether they
+will divide well or not, such as Oriental Poppies and _Eryngium
+Oliverianum_. They behave in nearly the same way. Sometimes a Poppy or
+an Eryngium comes up with one thick root, impossible to divide, while
+the next door plant has a number of roots that are ready to drop apart
+like a bunch of Salsafy.
+
+Everlasting Peas do nearly the same. One may dig up two plants--own
+brothers of say seven years old--and a rare job it is, for they go
+straight down into the earth nearly a yard deep. One of them will have a
+straight black post of a root 2-1/2 inches thick without a break of any
+sort till it forks a foot underground, while the other will be a sort of
+loose rope of separate roots from half to three-quarters of an inch
+thick, that if carefully followed down and cleverly dissected where they
+join, will make strong plants at once. But the usual way to get young
+plants of Everlasting Pea is to look out in earliest spring for the many
+young growths that will be shooting, for these if taken off with a good
+bit of the white underground stem will root under a hand-light.
+
+Most of the Primrose tribe divide pleasantly and easily: the worst are
+the _auricula_ section; with these, for outdoor planting, one often has
+to slice a main root down to give a share of root to the offset.
+
+When one is digging up plants with running roots, such as Gaultheria,
+Honeysuckle, Polygonum, Scotch Briars, and many of the _Rubus_ tribe, or
+what is better, if one person is digging while another pulls up, it
+never does for the one who is pulling to give a steady haul; this is
+sure to end in breakage, whereas a root comes up willingly and unharmed
+in loosened ground to a succession of firm but gentle tugs, and one soon
+learns to suit the weight of the pulls to the strength of the plant, and
+to learn its breaking strain.
+
+Towards the end of October outdoor flowers in anything like quantity
+cannot be expected, and yet there are patches of bloom here and there in
+nearly every corner of the garden. The pretty Mediterranean Periwinkle
+(_Vinca acutiflora_) is in full bloom. As with many another southern
+plant that in its own home likes a cool and shady place, it prefers a
+sunny one in our latitude. The flowers are of a pale and delicate
+grey-blue colour, nearly as large as those of the common _Vinca major_,
+but they are borne more generously as to numbers on radical shoots that
+form thick, healthy-looking tufts of polished green foliage. It is not
+very common in gardens, but distinctly desirable.
+
+In the bulb-beds the bright-yellow _Sternbergia lutea_ is in flower. At
+first sight it looks something like a Crocus of unusually firm and
+solid substance; but it is an Amaryllis, and its pure and even yellow
+colouring is quite unlike that of any of the Crocuses. The numerous
+upright leaves are thick, deep green, and glossy. It flowers rather
+shyly in our poor soil, even in well-made beds, doing much better in
+chalky ground.
+
+Czar Violets are giving their fine and fragrant flowers on stalks nine
+inches long. To have them at their best they must be carefully
+cultivated and liberally enriched. No plants answer better to good
+treatment, or spoil more quickly by neglect. A miserable sight is a
+forgotten violet-bed where they have run together into a tight mat,
+giving only few and poor flowers. I have seen the owner of such a bed
+stand over it and blame the plants, when he should have laid the lash on
+his own shoulders. Violets must be replanted every year. When the last
+rush of bloom in March is over, the plants are pulled to pieces, and
+strong single crowns from the outer edges of the clumps, or from the
+later runners, are replanted in good, well-manured soil, in such a place
+as will be somewhat shaded from summer sun. There should be eighteen
+inches between each plant, and as they make their growth, all runners
+should be cut off until August. They are encouraged by liberal doses of
+liquid manure from time to time, and watered in case of drought; and the
+heart of the careful gardener is warmed and gratified when friends,
+seeing them at midsummer, say (as has more than once happened), "What a
+nice batch of young Hollyhocks!"
+
+In such a simple matter as the culture of this good hardy Violet, my
+garden, though it is full of limitations, and in all ways falls short of
+any worthy ideal, enables me here and there to point out something that
+is worth doing, and to lay stress on the fact that the things worth
+doing are worth taking trouble about. But it is a curious thing that
+many people, even among those who profess to know something about
+gardening, when I show them something fairly successful--the crowning
+reward of much care and labour--refuse to believe that any pains have
+been taken about it. They will ascribe it to chance, to the goodness of
+my soil, and even more commonly to some supposed occult influence of my
+own--to anything rather than to the plain fact that I love it well
+enough to give it plenty of care and labour. They assume a tone of
+complimentary banter, kindly meant no doubt, but to me rather
+distasteful, to this effect: "Oh yes, of course it will grow for you;
+anything will grow for you; you have only to look at a thing and it will
+grow." I have to pump up a laboured smile and accept the remark with
+what grace I can, as a necessary civility to the stranger that is within
+my gates, but it seems to me evident that those who say these things do
+not understand the love of a garden.
+
+I could not help rejoicing when such a visitor came to me one October. I
+had been saying how necessary good and deep cultivation was, especially
+in so very poor and shallow a soil as mine. Passing up through the copse
+where there were some tall stems of _Lilium giganteum_ bearing the great
+upturned pods of seed, my visitor stopped and said, "I don't believe a
+word about your poor soil--look at the growth of that Lily. Nothing
+could make that great stem ten feet high in a poor soil, and there it
+is, just stuck into the wood!" I said nothing, knowing that presently I
+could show a better answer than I could frame in words. A little farther
+up in the copse we came upon an excavation about twelve feet across and
+four deep, and by its side a formidable mound of sand, when my friend
+said, "Why are you making all this mess in your pretty wood? are you
+quarrying stone, or is it for the cellar of a building? and what on
+earth are you going to do with that great heap of sand? why, there must
+be a dozen loads of it." That was my moment of secret triumph, but I
+hope I bore it meekly as I answered, "I only wanted to plant a few more
+of those big Lilies, and you see in my soil they would not have a chance
+unless the ground was thoroughly prepared; look at the edge of the scarp
+and see how the solid yellow sand comes to within four inches of the
+top; so I have a big wide hole dug; and look, there is the donkey-cart
+coming with the first load of Dahlia-tops and soft plants that have been
+for the summer in the south border. There will be several of those
+little cartloads, each holding three barrowfuls. As it comes into the
+hole, the men will chop it with the spade and tread it down close,
+mixing in a little sand. This will make a nice cool, moist bottom of
+slowly-rotting vegetable matter. Some more of the same kind of waste
+will come from the kitchen garden--cabbage-stumps, bean-haulm, soft
+weeds that have been hoed up, and all the greenest stuff from the
+rubbish-heap. Every layer will be chopped and pounded, and tramped down
+so that there should be as little sinking as possible afterwards. By
+this time the hole will be filled to within a foot of the top; and now
+we must get together some better stuff--road-scrapings and trimmings
+mixed with some older rubbish-heap mould, and for the top of all, some
+of our precious loam, and the soil of an old hotbed and some
+well-decayed manure, all well mixed, and then we are ready for the
+Lilies. They are planted only just underground, and then the whole bed
+has a surfacing of dead leaves, which helps to keep down weeds, and also
+looks right with the surrounding wild ground. The remains of the heap of
+sand we must deal with how we can; but there are hollows here and there
+in the roadway and paths, and a place that can be levelled up in the
+rubbish-yard, and some kitchen-garden paths that will bear raising, and
+so by degrees it is disposed of."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NOVEMBER
+
+Giant Christmas Rose -- Hardy Chrysanthemums -- Sheltering tender shrubs
+-- Turfing by inoculation -- Transplanting large trees -- Sir Henry
+Steuart's experience early in the century -- Collecting fallen leaves --
+Preparing grubbing tools -- Butcher's Broom -- Alexandrian Laurel --
+Hollies and Birches -- A lesson in planting.
+
+
+The giant Christmas Rose (_Helleborus maximus_) is in full flower; it is
+earlier than the true Christmas Rose, being at its best by the middle of
+November. It is a large and massive flower, but compared with the later
+kinds has a rather coarse look. The bud and the back of the flower are
+rather heavily tinged with a dull pink, and it never has the pure-white
+colouring throughout of the later ones.
+
+I have taken some pains to get together some really hardy
+November-blooming Chrysanthemums. The best of all is a kind frequent in
+neighbouring cottage-gardens, and known hereabouts as Cottage Pink. I
+believe it is identical with Emperor of China, a very old sort that used
+to be frequent in greenhouse cultivation before it was supplanted by the
+many good kinds now grown. But its place is not indoors, but in the
+open garden; if against a south or west wall, so much the better.
+Perhaps one year in seven the bloom may be spoilt by such a severe frost
+as that of October 1895, but it will bear unharmed several degrees of
+frost and much rain. I know no Chrysanthemum of so true a pink colour,
+the colour deepening to almost crimson in the centre. After the first
+frost the foliage of this kind turns to a splendid colour, the green of
+the leaves giving place to a rich crimson that sometimes clouds the
+outer portion of the leaf, and often covers its whole expanse. The
+stiff, wholesome foliage adds much to the beauty of the outdoor kinds,
+contrasting most agreeably with the limp, mildewed leafage of those
+indoors. Following Cottage Pink is a fine pompone called Soleil d'Or, in
+colour the richest deep orange, with a still deeper and richer coloured
+centre. The beautiful crimson Julie Lagravère flowers at the same time.
+Both are nearly frost-proof, and true hardy November flowers.
+
+The first really frosty day we go to the upper part of the wood and cut
+out from among the many young Scotch Firs as many as we think will be
+wanted for sheltering plants and shrubs of doubtful hardiness. One
+section of the high wall at the back of the flower border is planted
+with rather tender things, so that the whole is covered with sheltering
+fir-boughs. Here are Loquat, Fuchsia, Pomegranate, _Edwardsia_,
+_Piptanthus_, and _Choisya_, and in the narrow border at the foot of the
+wall, _Crinum_, _Nandina_, _Clerodendron_, and _Hydrangea_. In the
+broad border in front of the wall nothing needs protection except
+Tritomas; these have cones of coal-ashes heaped over each plant or
+clump. The Crinums also have a few inches of ashes over them.
+
+Some large Hydrangeas in tubs are moved to a sheltered place and put
+close together, a mound of sand being shovelled up all round to nearly
+the depth of the tubs; then a wall is made of thatched hurdles, and dry
+fern is packed well in among the heads of the plants. They would be
+better in a frost-proof shed, but we have no such place to spare.
+
+The making of a lawn is a difficulty in our very poor sandy soil. In
+this rather thickly-populated country the lords of the manor had been so
+much pestered for grants of road-side turf, and the privilege when
+formerly given had been so much abused, that they have agreed together
+to refuse all applications. Opportunities of buying good turf do not
+often occur, and sowing is slow, and not satisfactory. I am told by a
+seedsman of the highest character that it is almost impossible to get
+grass seed clean and true to name from the ordinary sources; the leading
+men therefore have to grow their own.
+
+In my own case, having some acres of rough heath and copse where the
+wild grasses are of fine-leaved kinds, I made the lawn by inoculation.
+The ground was trenched and levelled, then well trodden and raked, and
+the surface stones collected. Tufts of the wild grass were then forked
+up, and were pulled into pieces about the size of the palm of one's
+hand, and laid down eight inches apart, and well rolled in. During the
+following summer we collected seed of the same grasses to sow early in
+spring in any patchy or bare places. One year after planting the patches
+had spread to double their size, and by the second year had nearly
+joined together. The grasses were of two kinds only, namely, Sheep's
+Fescue (_Festuca ovina_) and Crested Dog's-tail (_Agrostis canina_).
+They make a lawn of a quiet, low-toned colour, never of the bright green
+of the rather coarser grasses; but in this case I much prefer it; it
+goes better with the Heath and Fir and Bracken that belong to the place.
+In point of labour, a lawn made of these fine grasses has the great
+merit of only wanting mowing once in three weeks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have never undertaken the transplanting of large trees, but there is
+no doubt that it may be done with success, and in laying out a new place
+where the site is bare, if suitable trees are to be had, it is a plan
+much to be recommended. It has often been done of late years, but until
+a friend drew my attention to an article in the _Quarterly Review_,
+dated March 1828, I had no idea that it had been practised on a large
+scale so early in the century. The article in question was a review of
+"The Planter's Guide," by Sir Henry Steuart, Bart., LL.D. (Edinburgh,
+1828.) It quoted the opinion and observation of a committee of
+gentlemen, among whom was Sir Walter Scott, who visited Allanton (Sir
+Henry Steuart's place) in September 1828, when the trees had been some
+years planted. They found them growing "with vigour and luxuriance, and
+in the most exposed situations making shoots of eighteen inches.... From
+the facts which they witnessed the committee reported it as their
+unanimous opinion that the art of transplantation, as practised by Sir
+Henry Steuart, is calculated to accelerate in an extraordinary degree
+the power of raising wood, whether for beauty or shelter."
+
+The reviewer then quotes the method of transplantation, describing the
+extreme care with which the roots are preserved, men with picks
+carefully trying round the ground beneath the outer circumference of the
+branches for the most outlying rootlets, and then gradually approaching
+the bole. The greatest care was taken not to injure any root or fibre,
+these as they were released from the earth being tied up, and finally
+the transplanting machine, consisting of a strong pole mounted on high
+wheels, was brought close to the trunk and attached to it, and the tree
+when lowered, carefully transported to its new home. Every layer of
+roots was then replanted with the utmost care, with delicate fingering
+and just sufficient ramming, and in the end the tree stood without any
+artificial support whatever, and in positions exposed to the fiercest
+gales.
+
+The average size of tree dealt with seems to have had a trunk about a
+foot in diameter, but some were removed with complete success whose
+trunks were two feet thick. In order that his trees might be the better
+balanced in shape, Sir Henry boldly departed from the older custom of
+replanting a tree in its original aspect, for he reversed the aspect, so
+that the more stunted and shorter-twigged weather side now became the
+lee side, and could grow more freely.
+
+He insists strongly on the wisdom of transplanting only well-weathered
+trees, and not those of tender constitution that had been sheltered by
+standing among other close growths, pointing out that these have a
+tenderer bark and taller top and roots less well able to bear the strain
+of wind and weather in the open.
+
+He reckons that a transplanted tree is in full new growth by the fourth
+or fifth year, and that an advantage equal to from thirty to forty
+years' growth is gained by the system. As for the expense of the work,
+Sir Henry estimated that his largest trees each cost from ten to
+thirteen shillings to take up, remove half a mile, and replant. In the
+case of large trees the ground that was to receive them was prepared a
+twelvemonth beforehand.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, in the third week of November, the most pressing work is the
+collecting of leaves for mulching and leaf-mould. The oaks have been
+late in shedding their leaves, and we have been waiting till they are
+down. Oak-leaves are the best, then hazel, elm, and Spanish chestnut.
+Birch and beech are not so good; beech-leaves especially take much too
+long to decay. This is, no doubt, the reason why nothing grows willingly
+under beeches. Horse and cart and three hands go out into the lanes for
+two or three days, and the loads that come home go three feet deep into
+the bottom of a range of pits. The leaves are trodden down close and
+covered with a layer of mould, in which winter salad stuff is
+immediately planted. The mass of leaves will soon begin to heat, and
+will give a pleasant bottom-heat throughout the winter. Other loads of
+leaves go into an open pen about ten feet square and five feet deep. Two
+such pens, made of stout oak post and rail and upright slabs, stand side
+by side in the garden yard. The one newly filled has just been emptied
+of its two-year-old leaf-mould, which has gone as a nourishing and
+protecting mulch over beds of Daffodils and choice bulbs and
+Alströmerias, some being put aside in reserve for potting and various
+uses. The other pen remains full of the leaves of last year, slowly
+rotting into wholesome plant-food.
+
+With works of wood-cutting and stump-grubbing near at hand, we look over
+the tools and see that all are in readiness for winter work. Axes and
+hand-bills are ground, fag-hooks sharpened, picks and mattocks sent to
+the smithy to be drawn out, the big cross-cut saw fresh sharpened and
+set, and the hand-saws and frame-saws got ready. The rings of the bittle
+are tightened and wedged up, so that its heavy head may not split when
+the mighty blows, flung into the tool with a man's full strength,
+fall on the heads of the great iron wedges.
+
+[Illustration: PENS FOR STORING DEAD LEAVES.]
+
+[Illustration: CAREFUL WILD-GARDENING--WHITE FOXGLOVES AT THE EDGE OF
+THE FIR WOOD. (_See page 270._)]
+
+Some thinning of birch-trees has to be done in the lowest part of the
+copse, not far from the house. They are rather evenly distributed on the
+ground, and I wish to get them into groups by cutting away superfluous
+trees. On the neighbouring moorland and heathy uplands they are apt to
+grow naturally in groups, the individual trees generally bending outward
+towards the free, open space, the whole group taking a form that is
+graceful and highly pictorial. I hope to be able to cut out trees so as
+to leave the remainder standing in some such way. But as a tree once cut
+cannot be put up again, the condemned ones are marked with bands of
+white paper right round the trunks, so that they can be observed from
+all sides, thus to give a chance of reprieve to any tree that from any
+point of view may have pictorial value.
+
+Frequent in some woody districts in the south of England, though local,
+is the Butcher's Broom (_Ruscus aculeatus_). Its stiff green branches
+that rise straight from the root bear small, hard leaves, armed with a
+sharp spine at the end. The flower, which comes in early summer, is
+seated without stalk in the middle of the leaf, and is followed by a
+large red berry. In country places where it abounds, butchers use the
+twigs tied in bunches to brush the little chips of meat off their great
+chopping-blocks, that are made of solid sections of elm trees, standing
+three and a half feet high and about two and a half feet across. Its
+beautiful garden relative, the Alexandrian or Victory Laurel (_Ruscus
+racemosus_), is also now just at its best. Nothing makes a more
+beautiful wreath than two of its branches, suitably arched and simply
+bound together near the butts and free ends. It is not a laurel, but a
+_Ruscus_, the name laurel having probably grown on to it by old
+association with any evergreen suitable for a victor's wreath. It is a
+slow-growing plant, but in time makes handsome tufts of its graceful
+branches. Few plants are more exquisitely modelled, to use a term
+familiar to the world of fine art, or give an effect of more delicate
+and perfect finish. It is a valuable plant in a shady place in good,
+cool soil. Early in summer, when the young growths appear, the old, then
+turning rusty, should be cut away.
+
+No trees group together more beautifully than Hollies and Birches. One
+such happy mixture in one part of the copse suggested further plantings
+of Holly, Birches being already in abundance. Every year some more
+Hollies are planted; those put in nine years ago are now fifteen feet
+high, and are increasing fast. They are slow to begin growth after
+transplanting, perhaps because in our very light soil they cannot be
+moved with a "ball"; all the soil shakes away, and leaves the root
+naked; but after about three years, when the roots have got good hold
+and begun to ramble, they grow away well. The trunk of an old Holly has
+a smooth pale-grey bark, and sometimes a slight twist, that makes it
+look like the gigantic bone of some old-world monster. The leaves of
+some old trees, especially if growing in shade, change their shape,
+losing the side prickles and becoming longer and nearly flat and more of
+a dark bottle-green colour, while the lower branches and twigs, leafless
+except towards their ends, droop down in a graceful line that rises
+again a little at the tip.
+
+[Illustration: HOLLY STEMS IN AN OLD HEDGE-ROW.]
+
+The leaves are all down by the last week of November, and woodland
+assumes its winter aspect; perhaps one ought rather to say, some one of
+its infinite variety of aspects, for those who live in such country know
+how many are the winter moods of forest land, and how endless are its
+variations of atmospheric effect and pictorial beauty--variations much
+greater and more numerous than are possible in summer.
+
+With the wind in the south-west and soft rain about, the twigs of the
+birches look almost crimson, while the dead bracken at their foot,
+half-draggled and sodden with wet, is of a strong, dark rust colour. Now
+one sees the full value of the good evergreens, and, rambling through
+woodland, more especially of the Holly, whether in bush or tree form,
+with its masses of strong green colour, dark and yet never gloomy.
+Whether it is the high polish of the leaves, or the lively look of their
+wavy edges, with the short prickles set alternately up and down, or the
+brave way the tree has of shooting up among other thick growth, or its
+massive sturdiness on a bare hillside, one cannot say, but a Holly in
+early winter, even without berries, is always a cheering sight. John
+Evelyn is eloquent in his praise of this grand evergreen, and lays
+special emphasis on this quality of cheerfulness.
+
+Near my home is a little wild valley, whose planting, wholly done by
+Nature, I have all my life regarded with the most reverent admiration.
+
+The arable fields of an upland farm give place to hazel copses as the
+ground rises. Through one of these a deep narrow lane, cool and dusky in
+summer from its high steep banks and over-arching foliage, leads by a
+rather sudden turn into the lower end of the little valley. Its grassy
+bottom is only a few yards wide, and its sides rise steeply right and
+left. Looking upward through groups of wild bushes and small trees, one
+sees thickly-wooded ground on the higher levels. The soil is of the very
+poorest; ridges of pure yellow sand are at the mouths of the many
+rabbit-burrows. The grass is of the short fine kinds of the heathy
+uplands. Bracken grows low, only from one to two feet high, giving
+evidence of the poverty of the soil, and yet it seems able to grow in
+perfect beauty clumps of Juniper and Thorn and Holly, and Scotch Fir on
+the higher ground.
+
+On the steeply-rising banks are large groups of Juniper, some tall, some
+spreading, some laced and wreathed about with tangles of Honeysuckle,
+now in brown winter dress, and there are a few bushes of
+Spindle-tree, whose green stems and twigs look strangely green in
+winter. The Thorns stand some singly, some in close companionship,
+impenetrable masses of short-twigged prickly growth, with here and there
+a wild Rose shooting straight up through the crowded branches. One
+thinks how lovely it will be in early June, when the pink Rose-wreaths
+are tossing out of the foamy sea of white Thorn blossom. The Hollies are
+towering masses of health and vigour. Some of the groups of Thorn and
+Holly are intermingled; all show beautiful arrangements of form and
+colour, such as are never seen in planted places. The track in the
+narrow valley trends steadily upwards and bears a little to the right.
+High up on the left-hand side is an old wood of Scotch Fir. A few
+detached trees come half-way down the valley bank to meet the gnarled,
+moss-grown Thorns and the silver-green Junipers. As the way rises some
+Birches come in sight, also at home in the sandy soil. Their graceful,
+lissome spray moving to the wind looks active among the stiffer trees,
+and their white stems shine out in startling contrast to the other dusky
+foliage. So the narrow track leads on, showing the same kinds of tree
+and bush in endless variety of beautiful grouping, under the sombre
+half-light of the winter day. It is afternoon, and as one mounts higher
+a pale bar of yellow light gleams between the farther tree-stems, but
+all above is grey, with angry, blackish drifts of ragged wrack. Now the
+valley opens out to a nearly level space of rough grass, with grey
+tufts that will be pink bell-heather in summer, and upstanding clumps of
+sedge that tell of boggy places. In front and to the right are dense
+fir-woods. To the left is broken ground and a steep-sided hill, towards
+whose shoulder the track rises. Here are still the same kinds of trees,
+but on the open hillside they have quite a different effect. Now I look
+into the ruddy heads of the Thorns, bark and fruit both of rich warm
+colouring, and into the upper masses of the Hollies, also reddening into
+wealth of berry.
+
+[Illustration: WILD JUNIPERS.]
+
+Throughout the walk, pacing slowly but steadily for nearly an hour, only
+these few kinds of trees have been seen, Juniper, Holly, Thorn, Scotch
+Fir, and Birch (a few small Oaks excepted), and yet there has not been
+once the least feeling of monotony, nor, returning downward by the same
+path, could one wish anything to be altered or suppressed or differently
+grouped. And I have always had the same feeling about any quite wild
+stretch of forest land. Such a bit of wild forest as this small valley
+and the hilly land beyond are precious lessons in the best kind of tree
+and shrub planting. No artificial planting can ever equal that of
+Nature, but one may learn from it the great lesson of the importance of
+moderation and reserve, of simplicity of intention, and directness of
+purpose, and the inestimable value of the quality called "breadth" in
+painting. For planting ground is painting a landscape with living
+things; and as I hold that good gardening takes rank within the
+bounds of the fine arts, so I hold that to plant well needs an artist of
+no mean capacity. And his difficulties are not slight ones, for his
+living picture must be right from all points, and in all lights.
+
+[Illustration: WILD JUNIPERS.]
+
+No doubt the planting of a large space with a limited number of kinds of
+trees cannot be trusted to all hands, for in those of a person without
+taste or the more finely-trained perceptions the result would be very
+likely dull or even absurd. It is not the paint that make the picture,
+but the brain and heart and hand of the man who uses it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+DECEMBER
+
+The woodman at work -- Tree-cutting in frosty weather -- Preparing
+sticks and stakes -- Winter Jasmine -- Ferns in the wood-walk -- Winter
+colour of evergreen shrubs -- Copse-cutting -- Hoop-making -- Tools used
+-- Sizes of hoops -- Men camping out -- Thatching with hoop-chips -- The
+old thatcher's bill.
+
+
+It is good to watch a clever woodman and see how much he can do with his
+simple tools, and how easily one man alone can deal with heavy pieces of
+timber. An oak trunk, two feet or more thick, and weighing perhaps a
+ton, lies on the ground, the branches being already cut off. He has to
+cleave it into four, and to remove it to the side of a lane one hundred
+feet away. His tools are an axe and one iron wedge. The first step is
+the most difficult--to cut such a nick in the sawn surface of the butt
+of the trunk as will enable the wedge to stick in. He holds the wedge to
+the cut and hammers it gently with the back of the axe till it just
+holds, then he tries a moderate blow, and is quite prepared for what is
+almost sure to happen--the wedge springs out backwards; very likely it
+springs out for three or four trials, but at last the wedge bites and he
+can give it the dexterous, rightly-placed blows that slowly drive it
+in. Before the wedge is in half its length a creaking sound is heard;
+the fibres are beginning to tear, and a narrow rift shows on each side
+of the iron. A few more strokes and the sound of the rending fibres is
+louder and more continuous, with sudden cracking noises, that tell of
+the parting of larger bundles of fibres, that had held together till the
+tremendous rending power of the wedge at last burst them asunder. Now
+the man looks out a bit of strong branch about four inches thick, and
+with the tree-trunk as a block and the axe held short in one hand as a
+chopper, he makes a wooden wedge about twice the size of the iron one,
+and drives it into one of the openings at its side. For if you have only
+one iron wedge, and you drive it tight into your work, you can neither
+send it farther nor get it out, and you feel and look foolish. The
+wooden wedge driven in releases the iron one, which is sent in afresh
+against the side of the wedge of oak, the trunk meanwhile rending slowly
+apart with much grieving and complaining of the tearing fibres. As the
+rent opens the axe cuts across diagonal bundles of fibres that still
+hold tightly across the widening rift. And so the work goes on, the man
+unconsciously exercising his knowledge of his craft in placing and
+driving the wedges, the helpless wood groaning and creaking and finally
+falling apart as the last holding fibres are severed by the axe.
+Meanwhile the raw green wood gives off a delicious scent, sweet and
+sharp and refreshing, not unlike the smell of apples crushing in the
+cider-press.
+
+[Illustration: THE WOODMAN.]
+
+The woodman has still to rend the two halves of the trunk, but the work
+is not so heavy and goes more quickly. Now he has to shift them to the
+side of the rough track that serves as a road through the wood. They are
+so heavy that two men could barely lift them, and he is alone. He could
+move them with a lever, that he could cut out of a straight young tree,
+a foot or so at a time at each end, but it is a slow and clumsy way;
+besides, the wood is too much encumbered with undergrowth. So he cuts
+two short pieces from a straight bit of branch four inches or five
+inches thick, levers one of his heavy pieces so that one end points to
+the roadway, prises up this end and kicks one of his short pieces under
+it close to the end, settling it at right angles with gentle kicks. The
+other short piece is arranged in the same way, a little way beyond the
+middle of the length of quartered trunk. Now, standing behind it, he can
+run the length easily along on the two rollers, till the one nearest him
+is left behind; this one is then put under the front end of the weight,
+and so on till the road is reached.
+
+Trees that stand where paths are to come, or that for any reason have to
+be removed, root and all, are not felled with axe or saw, but are
+grubbed down. The earth is dug away next to the tree, gradually exposing
+the roots; these are cut through with axe or mattock close to the
+butt, and again about eighteen inches away, so that by degrees a deep
+trench, eighteen inches wide, is excavated round the butt. A rope is
+fastened at the right distance up the trunk, when, if the tree does not
+hold by a very strong tap-root, a succession of steady pulls will bring
+it down; the weight of the top thus helping to prise the heavy butt out
+of the ground. We come upon many old stumps of Scotch fir, the remains
+of the original wood; they make capital firewood, though some burn
+rather too fiercely, being full of turpentine. Many are still quite
+sound, though it must be six-and-twenty years since they were felled.
+They are very hard to grub, with their thick taproots and far-reaching
+laterals, and still tougher to split up, their fibres are so much
+twisted, and the dark-red heart-wood has become hardened till it rings
+to a blow almost like metal. But some, whose roots have rotted, come up
+more easily, and with very little digging may be levered out of the
+ground with a long iron stone-bar, such as they use in the neighbouring
+quarries, putting the point of the bar under the "stam," and having a
+log of wood for a hard fulcrum. Or a stout young stem of oak or chestnut
+is used for a lever, passing a chain under the stump and over the middle
+of the bar and prising upwards with the lever. "Stam" is the word always
+used by the men for any stump of a tree left in the ground.
+
+[Illustration: GRUBBING A TREE-STUMP.]
+
+[Illustration: FELLING AND GRUBBING TOOLS. (_See page 150._)]
+
+A spell of frosty days at the end of December puts a stop to all
+planting and ground work. Now we go into the copse and cut the trees
+that have been provisionally marked, judged, and condemned, with the
+object of leaving the remainder standing in graceful groups. The men
+wonder why I cut some of the trees that are best and straightest and
+have good tops, and leave those with leaning stems. Anything of seven
+inches or less diameter is felled with the axe, but thicker trees with
+the cross-cut saw. For these our most active fellow climbs up the tree
+with a rope, and makes it fast to the trunk a good way up, then two of
+them, kneeling, work the saw. When it has cut a third of the way
+through, the rope is pulled on the side opposite the cut to keep it open
+and let the saw work free. When still larger trees are sawn down this is
+done by driving in a wedge behind the saw, when the width of the
+saw-blade is rather more than buried in the tree. When the trunk is
+nearly sawn through, it wants care and judgment to see that the saw does
+not get pinched by the weight of the tree; the clumsy workman who fails
+to clear his saw gets laughed at, and probably damages his tool. Good
+straight trunks of oak and chestnut are put aside for special uses; the
+rest of the larger stuff is cut into cordwood lengths of four feet. The
+heaviest of these are split up into four pieces to make them easier to
+load and carry away, and eventually to saw up into firewood.
+
+The best of the birch tops are cut into pea-sticks, a clever, slanting
+cut with the hand-bill leaving them pointed and ready for use.
+Throughout the copse are "stools" of Spanish chestnut, cut about once in
+five years. From this we get good straight stakes for Dahlias and
+Hollyhocks, also beanpoles; while the rather straight-branched boughs
+are cut into branching sticks for Michaelmas Daisies, and special
+lengths are got ready for various kinds of plants--Chrysanthemums,
+Lilies, Pæonies and so on. To provide all this in winter, when other
+work is slack or impossible, is an important matter in the economy of a
+garden, for all gardeners know how distressing and harassing it is to
+find themselves without the right sort of sticks or stakes in summer,
+and what a long job it then seems to have to look them up and cut them,
+of indifferent quality, out of dry faggots. By the plan of preparing all
+in winter no precious time is lost, and a tidy withe-bound bundle of the
+right sort is always at hand. The rest of the rough spray and small
+branching stuff is made up into faggots to be chopped up for
+fire-lighting; the country folk still use the old word "bavin" for
+faggots. The middle-sized branches--anything between two inches and six
+inches in diameter--are what the woodmen call "top and lop"; these are
+also cut into convenient lengths, and are stacked in the barn, to be cut
+into billets for next year's fires in any wet or frosty weather, when
+outdoor work is at a standstill.
+
+What a precious winter flower is the yellow Jasmine (_Jasminum
+nudiflorum_). Though hard frost spoils the flowers then expanded, as
+soon as milder days come the hosts of buds that are awaiting them burst
+into bloom. Its growth is so free and rapid that one has no scruple
+about cutting it freely; and great branching sprays, cut a yard or more
+long, arranged with branches of Alexandrian Laurel or other suitable
+foliage--such as Andromeda or Gaultheria--are beautiful as room
+decoration.
+
+Christmas Roses keep on flowering bravely, in spite of our light soil
+and frequent summer drought, both being unfavourable conditions; but
+bravest of all is the blue Algerian Iris (_Iris stylosa_), flowering
+freely as it does, at the foot of a west wall, in all open weather from
+November till April.
+
+In the rock-garden at the edge of the copse the creeping evergreen
+_Polygala chamæbuxus_ is quite at home in beds of peat among mossy
+boulders. Where it has the ground to itself, this neat little shrub
+makes close tufts only four inches or five inches high, its wiry
+branches being closely set with neat, dark-green, box-like leaves;
+though where it has to struggle for life among other low shrubs, as may
+often be seen in the Alps, the branches elongate, and will run bare for
+two feet or three feet to get the leafy end to the light. Even now it is
+thickly set with buds and has a few expanded flowers. This bit of
+rock-garden is mostly planted with dwarf shrubs--_Skimmia_, Bog-myrtle,
+Alpine Rhododendrons, _Gaultheria_, and _Andromeda_, with drifts of
+hardy ferns between, and only a few "soft" plants. But of these, two are
+now conspicuously noticeable for foliage--the hardy Cyclamens and the
+blue Himalayan Poppy (_Meconopsis Wallichi_). Every winter I notice how
+bravely the pale woolly foliage of this plant bears up against the early
+winter's frost and wet.
+
+The wood-walk, whose sloping banks are planted with hardy ferns in large
+groups, shows how many of our common kinds are good plants for the first
+half of the winter. Now, only a week before Christmas, the male fern is
+still in handsome green masses; _Blechnum_ is still good, and common
+Polypody at its best. The noble fronds of the Dilated Shield-fern are
+still in fairly good order, and _Ceterach_ in rocky chinks is in fullest
+beauty. Beyond, in large groups, are prosperous-looking tufts of the
+Wood-rush (_Luzula sylvatica_); then there is wood as far as one can
+see, here mostly of the silver-stemmed Birch and rich green Holly, with
+the woodland carpet of dusky low-toned bramble and quiet dead leaf and
+brilliant moss.
+
+By the middle of December many of the evergreen shrubs that thrive in
+peat are in full beauty of foliage. _Andromeda Catesbæi_ is richly
+coloured with crimson clouds and splashes; Skimmias are at their best
+and freshest, their bright, light green, leathery foliage defying all
+rigours of temperature or weather. Pernettyas are clad in their
+strongest and deepest green leafage, and show a richness and depth of
+colour only surpassed by that of the yew hedges.
+
+Copse-cutting is one of the harvests of the year for labouring men, and
+all the more profitable that it can go on through frosty weather. A
+handy man can earn good wages at piece-work, and better still if he can
+cleave and shave hoops. Hoop-making is quite a large industry in these
+parts, employing many men from Michaelmas to March. They are
+barrel-hoops, made of straight poles of six years' growth. The wood used
+is Birch, Ash, Hazel and Spanish Chestnut. Hazel is the best, or as my
+friend in the business says, "Hazel, that's the master!" The growths of
+the copses are sold by auction in some near county town, as they stand,
+the buyer clearing them during the winter. They are cut every six years,
+and a good copse of Chestnut has been known to fetch £54 an acre.
+
+A good hoop-maker can earn from twenty to twenty-five shillings a week.
+He sets up his brake, while his mate, who will cleave the rods, cuts a
+post about three inches thick, and fixes it into the ground so that it
+stands about three feet high. To steady it he drives in another of
+rather curly shape by its side, so that the tops of the two are nearly
+even, but the foot of the curved spur is some nine inches away at the
+bottom, with its top pressing hard against the upright. To stiffen it
+still more he makes a long withe of a straight hazel rod, which he
+twists into a rope by holding the butt tightly under his left foot
+and twisting with both hands till the fibres are wrenched open and
+the withe is ready to spring back and wind upon itself. With this he
+binds his two posts together, so that they stand perfectly rigid. On
+this he cleaves the poles, beginning at the top. The tool is a small
+one-handed adze with a handle like a hammer. A rod is usually cleft in
+two, so that it is only shaved on one side; but sometimes a pole of
+Chestnut, a very quick-growing wood, is large enough to cleave into
+eight, and when the wood is very clean and straight they can sometimes
+get two lengths of fourteen feet out of a pole.
+
+[Illustration: HOOP-MAKING IN THE WOODS.]
+
+The brake is a strong flat-shaped post of oak set up in the ground to
+lean a little away from the workman. It stands five and a half feet out
+of the ground. A few inches from its upper end it has a shoulder cut in
+it which acts as the fulcrum for the cross-bar that supports the pole to
+be shaved, and that leans down towards the man. The relative position of
+the two parts of the brake reminds one of the mast and yard of a
+lateen-rigged boat. The bar is nicely balanced by having a hazel withe
+bound round a groove at its upper short end, about a foot beyond the
+fulcrum, while the other end of the withe is tied round a heavy bit of
+log or stump that hangs clear of the ground and just balances the bar,
+so that it see-saws easily. The cleft rod that is to be shaved lies
+along the bar, and an iron pin that passes through the head of the brake
+just above the point where the bar rides over its shoulder, nips the
+hoop as the weight of the stroke comes upon it; the least lifting of the
+bar releases the hoop, which is quickly shifted onwards for a new
+stroke. The shaving tool is a strong two-handled draw-knife, much like
+the tool used by wheelwrights. It is hard work, "wunnerful tryin' across
+the chest."
+
+The hoops are in several standard lengths, from fourteen to two and a
+half feet. The longest go to the West Indies for sugar hogsheads, and
+some of the next are for tacking round pipes of wine. The wine is in
+well-made iron-hooped barrels, but the wooden hoops are added to protect
+them from the jarring and bumping when rolled on board ship, and
+generally to save them during storage and transit. These hoops are in
+two sizes, called large and small pipes. A thirteen-foot size go to
+foreign countries for training vines on. A large quantity that measure
+five feet six inches, and called "long pinks," are for cement barrels. A
+length of seven feet six inches are used for herring barrels, and are
+called kilderkins, after the name of the size of tub. Smaller sizes go
+for gunpowder barrels, and for tacking round packing-cases and
+tea-chests.
+
+The men want to make all the time they can in the short winter daylight,
+and often the work is some miles from home, so if the weather is not
+very cold they make huts of the bundles of rods and chips, and sleep out
+on the job. I always admire the neatness with which the bundles are
+fastened up, and the strength of the withe-rope that binds them, for
+sixty hoops, or thirty pairs, as they call them, of fourteen feet,
+are a great weight to be kept together by four slight hazel bands.
+
+[Illustration: HOOP-SHAVING.]
+
+[Illustration: SHED-ROOF, THATCHED WITH HOOP-CHIP.]
+
+In this industry there is a useful by-product in the shavings, or chips
+as they call them. They are eighteen inches to two feet long, and are
+made up into small faggots or bundles and stacked up for six months to a
+year to dry, and then sell readily at twopence a bundle to cut up for
+fire-lighting. They also make a capital thatch for sheds, a thatch
+nearly a foot thick, warm in winter, and cool in summer, and durable,
+for if well made it will last for forty years. I got a clever old
+thatcher to make me a hoop-chip roof for the garden shed; it was a long
+job, and he took his time (although it was piece-work), preparing and
+placing each handful of chips as carefully as if he was making a wedding
+bouquet. He was one of the old sort--no scamping of work for him; his
+work was as good as he could make it, and it was his pride and delight.
+The roof was prepared with strong laths nailed horizontally across the
+rafters as if for tiling, but farther apart; and the chips, after a
+number of handfuls had been duly placed and carefully poked and patted
+into shape, were bound down to the laths with soft tarred cord guided by
+an immense iron needle. The thatching, as in all cases of roof-covering,
+begins at the eaves, so that each following layer laps over the last.
+Only the ridge has to be of straw, because straw can be bent over; the
+chips are too rigid. When the thatch is all in place the whole is
+"drove," that is, beaten up close with a wooden bat that strikes against
+the ends of the chips and drives them up close, jamming them tight into
+the fastening. After six months of drying summer weather he came and
+drove it all over again.
+
+Thatching is done by piece-work, and paid at so much a "square" of ten
+by ten feet. When I asked for his bill, the old man brought it made out
+on a hazel stick, in a manner either traditional, or of his own
+devising. This is how it runs, in notches about half an inch long, and
+dots dug with the point of the knife. It means, "To so much work done,
+£4, 5s. 0d."
+
+    IIXXX·I·, IIXXXX·II[V] IIII[V]XX,IIXX
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+LARGE AND SMALL GARDENS
+
+A well done villa garden -- A small town garden -- Two delightful
+gardens of small size -- Twenty acres within the walls -- A large
+country house and its garden -- Terrace -- Lawn -- Parterre -- Free
+garden -- Kitchen garden -- Buildings -- Ornamental orchard --
+Instructive mixed gardens -- Mr. Wilson's at Wisley -- A window garden.
+
+
+The size of a garden has very little to do with its merit. It is merely
+an accident relating to the circumstances of the owner. It is the size
+of his heart and brain and goodwill that will make his garden either
+delightful or dull, as the case may be, and either leave it at the usual
+monotonous dead-level, or raise it, in whatever degree may be, towards
+that of a work of fine art. If a man knows much, it is more difficult
+for him to deal with a small space than a larger, for he will have to
+make the more sacrifice; but if he is wise he will at once make up his
+mind about what he will let go, and how he may best treat the restricted
+space. Some years ago I visited a small garden attached to a villa on
+the outskirts of a watering-place on the south coast. In ordinary hands
+it would have been a perfectly commonplace thing, with the usual weary
+mixture, and exhibiting the usual distressing symptoms that come in the
+train of the ministrations of the jobbing-gardener. In size it may have
+been a third of an acre, and it was one of the most interesting and
+enjoyable gardens I have ever seen, its master and mistress giving it
+daily care and devotion, and enjoying to the full its glad response of
+grateful growth. The master had built with his own hands, on one side
+where more privacy was wanted, high rugged walls, with spaces for many
+rock-loving plants, and had made the wall die away so cleverly into the
+rock-garden, that the whole thing looked like a garden founded on some
+ancient ruined structure. And it was all done with so much taste that
+there was nothing jarring or strained-looking, still less anything
+cockneyfied, but all easy and pleasant and pretty, while the happy look
+of the plants at once proclaimed his sympathy with them, and his
+comprehensive knowledge of their wants. In the same garden was a walled
+enclosure where Tree Pæonies and some of the hardier of the oriental
+Rhododendrons were thriving, and there were pretty spaces of lawn, and
+flower border, and shrub clump, alike beautiful and enjoyable, all
+within a small space, and yet not crowded--the garden of one who was a
+keen flower lover, as well as a world-known botanist.
+
+I am always thankful to have seen this garden, because it showed me, in
+a way that had never been so clearly brought home to me, how much may be
+done in a small space.
+
+Another and much smaller garden that I remember with pleasure was in a
+sort of yard among houses, in a country town. The house it belonged to,
+a rather high one, was on its east side, and halfway along on the south;
+the rest was bounded by a wall about ten feet high. Opposite the house
+the owner had built of rough blocks of sandstone what served as a
+workshop, about twelve feet long along the wall, and six feet wide
+within. A low archway of the same rough stone was the entrance, and
+immediately above it a lean-to roof sloped up to the top of the wall,
+which just here had been carried a little higher. The roof was of large
+flat sandstones, only slightly lapping over each other, with spaces and
+chinks where grew luxuriant masses of Polypody Fern. It was contrived
+with a cement bed, so that it was quite weather-tight, and the room was
+lighted by a skylight at one end that did not show from the garden. A
+small surface of lead-flat, on a level with the top of the wall, in one
+of the opposite angles, carried an old oil-jar, from which fell masses
+of gorgeous Tropæolum, and the actual surface of the flat was a garden
+of Stonecrops. The rounded coping of the walls, and the joints in many
+places (for the wall was an old one), were gay with yellow Corydalis and
+Snapdragons and more Stonecrops. The little garden had a few pleasant
+flowering bushes, Ribes and Laurustinus, a Bay and an Almond tree. In
+the coolest and shadiest corner were a fern-grotto and a tiny tank. The
+rest of the garden, only a few yards across, was laid out with a square
+bed in the middle, and a little path round, then a three-feet-wide
+border next the wall, all edged with rather tall-grown Box. The middle
+bed had garden Roses and Carnations, and Mignonette and Stocks. All
+round were well-chosen plants and shrubs, looking well and happy, though
+in a confined and rather airless space. Every square foot had been made
+the most of with the utmost ingenuity, but the ingenuity was always
+directed by good taste, so that nothing looked crowded or out of place.
+
+And I think of two other gardens of restricted space, both long strips
+of ground walled at the sides, whose owners I am thankful to count among
+my friends--one in the favoured climate of the Isle of Wight, a little
+garden where I suppose there are more rare and beautiful plants brought
+together within a small space than perhaps in any other garden of the
+same size in England; the other in a cathedral town, now a memory only,
+for the master of what was one of the most beautiful gardens I have ever
+seen now lives elsewhere. The garden was long in shape, and divided
+about midway by a wall. The division next the house was a quiet lawn,
+with a mulberry tree and a few mounded borders near the sides that were
+unobstrusive, and in no way spoilt the quiet feeling of the lawn space.
+Then a doorway in the dividing wall led to a straight path with a double
+flower border. I suppose there was a vegetable garden behind the
+borders, but of that I have no recollection, only a vivid remembrance of
+that brilliantly beautiful mass of flowers. The picture was good enough
+as one went along, especially as at the end one came first within sound
+and then within sight of a rushing river, one of those swift, clear,
+shallow streams with stony bottom that the trout love; but it was ten
+times more beautiful on turning to go back, for there was the mass of
+flowers, and towering high above it the noble mass of the giant
+structure--one of the greatest and yet most graceful buildings that has
+ever been raised by man to the glory of God.
+
+It is true that it is not every one that has the advantage of a garden
+bounded by a river and a noble church, but even these advantages might
+have been lost by vulgar or unsuitable treatment of the garden. But the
+mind of the master was so entirely in sympathy with the place, that no
+one that had the privilege of seeing it could feel that it was otherwise
+than right and beautiful.
+
+Both these were the gardens of clergymen; indeed, some of our greatest
+gardeners are, and have been, within the ranks of the Church. For have
+we not a brilliantly-gifted dignitary whose loving praise of the Queen
+of flowers has become a classic? and have we not among churchmen the
+greatest grower of seedling Daffodils the world has yet seen, and other
+names of clergymen honourably associated with Roses and Auriculas and
+Tulips and other good flowers, and all greatly to their bettering? The
+conditions of the life of a parish priest would tend to make him a good
+gardener, for, while other men roam about, he stays mostly at home, and
+to live with one's garden is one of the best ways to ensure its welfare.
+And then, among the many anxieties and vexations and disappointments
+that must needs grieve the heart of the pastor of his people, his
+garden, with its wholesome labour and all its lessons of patience and
+trust and hopefulness, and its comforting power of solace, must be one
+of the best of medicines for the healing of his often sorrowing soul.
+
+I do not envy the owners of very large gardens. The garden should fit
+its master or his tastes just as his clothes do; it should be neither
+too large nor too small, but just comfortable. If the garden is larger
+than he can individually govern and plan and look after, then he is no
+longer its master but its slave, just as surely as the much-too-rich man
+is the slave and not the master of his superfluous wealth. And when I
+hear of the great place with a kitchen garden of twenty acres within the
+walls, my heart sinks as I think of the uncomfortable disproportion
+between the man and those immediately around him, and his vast output of
+edible vegetation, and I fall to wondering how much of it goes as it
+should go, or whether the greater part of it does not go dribbling away,
+leaking into unholy back-channels; and of how the looking after it must
+needs be subdivided; and of how many side-interests are likely to
+steal in, and altogether how great a burden of anxiety or matter of
+temptation it must give rise to. A grand truth is in the old farmer's
+saying, "The master's eye makes the pig fat;" but how can any one
+master's eye fat that vast pig of twenty acres, with all its minute and
+costly cultivation, its two or three crops a year off all ground given
+to soft vegetables, its stoves, greenhouses, orchid and orchard houses,
+its vineries, pineries, figgeries, and all manner of glass structures?
+
+But happily these monstrous gardens are but few--I only know of or have
+seen two, but I hope never to see another.
+
+Nothing is more satisfactory than to see the well-designed and
+well-organised garden of the large country house, whose master loves his
+garden, and has good taste and a reasonable amount of leisure.
+
+I think that the first thing in such a place is to have large unbroken
+lawn spaces--all the better if they are continuous, passing round the
+south and west sides of the house. I am supposing a house of the best
+class, but not necessarily of the largest size. Immediately adjoining
+the house, except for the few feet needed for a border for climbing
+plants, is a broad walk, dry and smooth, and perfectly level from end to
+end. This, in the case of many houses, and nearly always with good
+effect, is raised two or three feet above the garden ground, and if the
+architecture of the house demands it, has a retaining wall surmounted by
+a balustrade of masonry and wrought stone. Broad and shallow stone
+steps lead down to the turf both at the end of the walk and in the
+middle of the front of the house, the wider and shallower the better,
+and at the foot of the wall may be a narrow border for a few climbing
+plants that will here and there rise above the coping of the parapet. I
+do not think it desirable where there are stone balusters or other
+distinct architectural features to let them be smothered with climbing
+plants, but that there should be, say, a _Pyrus japonica_ or an
+Escallonia, and perhaps a white Jasmine, and on a larger space perhaps a
+cut-leaved or a Claret Vine. Some of the best effects of the kind I have
+seen were where the bush, being well established, rose straight out of
+the grass, the border being unnecessary except just at the beginning.
+
+The large lawn space I am supposing stretches away a good distance from
+the house, and is bounded on the south and west by fine trees; away
+beyond that is all wild wood. On summer afternoons the greater part of
+the lawn expanse is in cool shade, while winter sunsets show through the
+tree stems. Towards the south-east the wood would pass into shrub
+plantations, and farther still into garden and wild orchard (of which I
+shall have something to say presently). At this end of the lawn would be
+the brilliant parterre of bedded plants, seen both from the shaded lawn
+and from the terrace, which at this end forms part of its design. Beyond
+the parterre would be a distinct division from the farther garden,
+either of Yew or Box hedge, with bays for seats, or in the case of a
+change of level, of another terrace wall. The next space beyond would be
+the main garden for hardy plants, at its southern end leading into the
+wild orchard. This would be the place for the free garden or the reserve
+garden, or for any of the many delightful ways in which hardy flowers
+can be used; and if it happened by good fortune to have a stream or any
+means of having running water, the possibilities of beautiful gardening
+would be endless.
+
+[Illustration: GARLAND-ROSE WREATHING THE END OF A TERRACE WALL.]
+
+Beyond this again would come the kitchen garden, and after that the
+stables and the home farm. If the kitchen garden had a high wall, and
+might be entered on this side by handsome wrought-iron gates, I would
+approach it from the parterre by a broad grass walk bounded by large Bay
+trees at equal intervals to right and left. Through these to the right
+would be seen the free garden of hardy flowers.
+
+For the kitchen garden a space of two acres would serve a large country
+house with all that is usually grown within walls, but there should
+always be a good space outside for the rougher vegetables, as well as a
+roomy yard for compost, pits and frames, and rubbish.
+
+And here I wish to plead on behalf of the gardener that he should have
+all reasonable comforts and conveniences. Nothing is more frequent, even
+in good places, than to find the potting and tool sheds screwed away
+into some awkward corner, badly lighted, much too small, and altogether
+inadequate, and the pits and frames scattered about and difficult to get
+at. Nothing is more wasteful of time, labour, or temper. The working
+parts of a large garden form a complicated organisation, and if the
+parts of the mechanism do not fit and work well, and are not properly
+eased and oiled, still more, if any are missing, there must be
+disastrous friction and damage and loss of power. In designing garden
+buildings, I always strongly urge in connection with the heating system
+a warmed potting shed and a comfortable messroom for the men, and over
+this a perfectly dry loft for drying and storing such matters as shading
+material, nets, mats, ropes, and sacks. If this can be warmed, so much
+the better. There must also be a convenient and quite frost-proof place
+for winter storing of vegetable roots and such plants as Dahlias,
+Cannas, and Gladiolus; and also a well-lighted and warmed workshop for
+all the innumerable jobs put aside for wet weather, of which the chief
+will be repainting and glazing of lights, repairing implements, and
+grinding and setting tools. This shop should have a carpenter's bench
+and screw, and a smith's anvil, and a proper assortment of tools. Such
+arrangements, well planned and thought out, will save much time and loss
+of produce, besides helping to make all the people employed more
+comfortable and happy.
+
+I think that a garden should never be large enough to be tiring, that if
+a large space has to be dealt with, a great part had better be laid out
+in wood. Woodland is always charming and restful and enduringly
+beautiful, and then there is an intermediate kind of woodland that
+should be made more of--woodland of the orchard type. Why is the orchard
+put out of the way, as it generally is, in some remote region beyond the
+kitchen garden and stables? I should like the lawn, or the hardy flower
+garden, or both, to pass directly into it on one side, and to plant a
+space of several acres, not necessarily in the usual way, with orchard
+standards twenty-five feet apart in straight rows (though in many places
+the straight rows might be best), but to have groups and even groves of
+such things as Medlars and Quinces, Siberian and Chinese Crabs, Damsons,
+Prunes, Service trees, and Mountain Ash, besides Apples, Pears, and
+Cherries, in both standard and bush forms. Then alleys of Filbert and
+Cob-nut, and in the opener spaces tangles or brakes of the many
+beautiful bushy things allied to the Apple and Plum tribe--_Cydonia_ and
+_Prunus triloba_ and _Cratægus_ of many kinds (some of them are tall
+bushes or small trees with beautiful fruits); and the wild Blackthorn,
+which, though a plum, is so nearly related to pear that pears may be
+grafted on it. And then brakes of Blackberries, especially of the
+Parsley-leaved kind, so free of growth and so generous of fruit. How is
+it that this fine native plant is almost invariably sold in nurseries as
+an American bramble? If I am mistaken in this I should be glad to be
+corrected, but I believe it to be only the cut-leaved variety of the
+native _Rubus affinis_.
+
+I have tried the best of the American kinds, and with the exception of
+one year, when I had a few fine fruits from Kittatinny, they had been a
+failure, whereas invariably when people have told me that their American
+Blackberries have fruited well, I have found them to be the
+Parsley-leaved.
+
+Some members of the large Rose-Apple-Plum tribe grow to be large forest
+trees, and in my wild orchard they would go in the farther parts. The
+Bird-cherry (_Prunus padus_) grows into a tree of the largest size. A
+Mountain Ash will sometimes have a trunk two feet in diameter, and a
+head of a size to suit. The American kind, its near relation, but with
+larger leaves and still grander masses of berries, is a noble small
+tree; and the native white Beam should not be forgotten, and choice
+places should be given to Amelanchier and the lovely double Japan Apple
+(_Pyrus malus floribunda_). To give due space and effect to all these
+good things my orchard garden would run into a good many acres, but
+every year it would be growing into beauty and profit. The grass should
+be left rough, and plentifully planted with Daffodils, and with Cowslips
+if the soil is strong. The grass would be mown and made into hay in
+June, and perhaps mown once more towards the end of September. Under the
+nut-trees would be Primroses and the garden kinds of wood Hyacinths and
+Dogtooth Violets and Lily of the Valley, and perhaps Snowdrops, or any
+of the smaller bulbs that most commended themselves to the taste of the
+master.
+
+Such an orchard garden, well-composed and beautifully grouped, always
+with that indispensable quality of good "drawing," would not only be a
+source of unending pleasure to those who lived in the place, but a
+valuable lesson to all who saw it; for it would show the value of the
+simple and sensible ways of using a certain class of related trees and
+bushes, and of using them with a deliberate intention of making the best
+of them, instead of the usual meaningless-nohow way of planting. This,
+in nine cases out of ten, means either ignorance or carelessness, the
+planter not caring enough about the matter to take the trouble to find
+out what is best to be done, and being quite satisfied with a mixed lot
+of shrubs, as offered in nursery sales, or with the choice of the
+nurseryman. I do not presume to condemn all mixed planting, only stupid
+and ignorant mixed planting. It is not given to all people to take their
+pleasures alike; and I have in my mind four gardens, all of the highest
+interest, in which the planting is all mixed; but then the mixture is of
+admirable ingredients, collected and placed on account of individual
+merit, and a ramble round any one of these in company with its owner is
+a pleasure and a privilege that one cannot prize too highly. Where the
+garden is of such large extent that experimental planting is made with a
+good number of one good thing at a time, even though there was no
+premeditated intention of planting for beautiful effect, the fact of
+there being enough plants to fall into large groups, and to cover some
+extent of ground, produces numbers of excellent results. I remember
+being struck with this on several occasions when I have had the
+happiness of visiting Mr. G. F. Wilson's garden at Wisley, a garden
+which I take to be about the most instructive it is possible to see. In
+one part, where the foot of the hill joined the copse, there were hosts
+of lovely things planted on a succession of rather narrow banks. Almost
+unthinkingly I expressed the regret I felt that so much individual
+beauty should be there without an attempt to arrange it for good effect.
+Mr. Wilson stopped, and looking at me straight with a kindly smile, said
+very quietly, "That is your business, not mine." In spite of its being a
+garden whose first object is trial and experiment, it has left in my
+memory two pictures, among several lesser ones, of plant-beauty that
+will stay with me as long as I can remember anything, one an autumn and
+one a spring picture--the hedge of _Rosa rugosa_ in full fruit, and a
+plantation of _Primula denticulata_. The Primrose was on a bit of level
+ground, just at the outer and inner edges of the hazel copse. The plants
+were both grouped and thinly sprinkled, just as nature plants--possibly
+they grew directly there from seed. They were in superb and luxuriant
+beauty in the black peaty-looking half-boggy earth, the handsome
+leaves of the brilliant colour and large size that told of perfect
+health and vigour, and the large round heads of pure lilac flower
+carried on strong stalks that must have been fifteen inches high. I
+never saw it so happy and so beautiful. It is a plant I much admire, and
+I do the best I can for it on my dry hill; but the conditions of my
+garden do not allow of any approach to the success of the Wisley plants;
+still I have treasured that lesson among many others I have brought away
+from that good garden, and never fail to advise some such treatment when
+I see the likely home for it in other places.
+
+[Illustration: A ROADSIDE COTTAGE GARDEN.]
+
+Some of the most delightful of all gardens are the little strips in
+front of roadside cottages. They have a simple and tender charm that one
+may look for in vain in gardens of greater pretension. And the old
+garden flowers seem to know that there they are seen at their best; for
+where else can one see such Wallflowers, or Double Daisies, or White
+Rose bushes; such clustering masses of perennial Peas, or such well-kept
+flowery edgings of Pink, or Thrift, or London Pride?
+
+Among a good many calls for advice about laying out gardens, I remember
+an early one that was of special interest. It was the window-box of a
+factory lad in one of the great northern manufacturing towns. He had
+advertised in a mechanical paper that he wanted a tiny garden, as full
+of interest as might be, in a window-box; he knew nothing--would
+somebody help him with advice? So advice was sent and the box prepared.
+If I remember rightly the size was three feet by ten inches. A little
+later the post brought him little plants of mossy and silvery
+saxifrages, and a few small bulbs. Even some stones were sent, for it
+was to be a rock-garden, and there were to be two hills of different
+heights with rocky tops, and a longish valley with a sunny and a shady
+side.
+
+It was delightful to have the boy's letters, full of keen interest and
+eager questions, and only difficult to restrain him from killing his
+plants with kindness, in the way of liberal doses of artificial manure.
+The very smallness of the tiny garden made each of its small features
+the more precious. I could picture his feeling of delightful
+anticipation when he saw the first little bluish blade of the Snowdrop
+patch pierce its mossy carpet. Would it, could it really grow into a
+real Snowdrop, with the modest, milk-white flower and the pretty green
+hearts on the outside of the inner petals, and the clear green stripes
+within? and would it really nod him a glad good-morning when he opened
+his window to greet it? And those few blunt reddish horny-looking snouts
+just coming through the ground, would they really grow into the
+brilliant blue of the early Squill, that would be like a bit of
+midsummer sky among the grimy surroundings of the attic window, and
+under that grey, soot-laden northern sky? I thought with pleasure how he
+would watch them in spare minutes of the dinner-hour spent at home, and
+think of them as he went forward and back to his work, and how the
+remembrance of the tender beauty of the full-blown flower would make him
+glad, and lift up his heart while "minding his mule" in the busy
+restless mill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+BEGINNING AND LEARNING
+
+The ignorant questioner -- Beginning at the end -- An example --
+Personal experience -- Absence of outer help -- Johns' "Flowers of the
+Field" -- Collecting plants -- Nurseries near London -- Wheel-spokes as
+labels -- Garden friends -- Mr. Robinson's "English Flower-Garden" --
+Mr. Nicholson's "Dictionary of Gardening" -- One main idea desirable --
+Pictorial treatment -- Training in fine art -- Adapting from Nature --
+Study of colour -- Ignorant use of the word "artistic."
+
+
+Many people who love flowers and wish to do some practical gardening are
+at their wit's end to know what to do and how to begin. Like a person
+who is on skates for the first time, they feel that, what with the
+bright steel runners, and the slippery surface, and the sense of
+helplessness, there are more ways of tumbling about than of progressing
+safely in any one direction. And in gardening the beginner must feel
+this kind of perplexity and helplessness, and indeed there is a great
+deal to learn, only it is pleasant instead of perilous, and the many
+tumbles by the way only teach and do not hurt. The first few steps are
+perhaps the most difficult, and it is only when we know something of the
+subject and an eager beginner comes with questions that one sees how
+very many are the things that want knowing. And the more ignorant the
+questioner, the more difficult it is to answer helpfully. When one
+knows, one cannot help presupposing some sort of knowledge on the part
+of the querist, and where this is absent the answer we can give is of no
+use. The ignorance, when fairly complete, is of such a nature that the
+questioner does not know what to ask, and the question, even if it can
+be answered, falls upon barren ground. I think in such cases it is
+better to try and teach one simple thing at a time, and not to attempt
+to answer a number of useless questions. It is disheartening when one
+has tried to give a careful answer to have it received with an Oh! of
+boredom or disappointment, as much as to say, You can't expect me to
+take all that trouble; and there is the still more unsatisfactory sort
+of applicant, who plies a string of questions and will not wait for the
+answers! The real way is to try and learn a little from everybody and
+from every place. There is no royal road. It is no use asking me or any
+one else how to dig--I mean sitting indoors and asking it. Better go and
+watch a man digging, and then take a spade and try to do it, and go on
+trying till it comes, and you gain the knack that is to be learnt with
+all tools, of doubling the power and halving the effort; and meanwhile
+you will be learning other things, about your own arms and legs and
+back, and perhaps a little robin will come and give you moral support,
+and at the same time keep a sharp look-out for any worms you may happen
+to turn up; and you will find out that there are all sorts of ways of
+learning, not only from people and books, but from sheer trying.
+
+I remember years ago having to learn to use the blow-pipe, for soldering
+and other purposes connected with work in gold and silver. The difficult
+part of it is to keep up the stream of air through the pipe while you
+are breathing the air in; it is easy enough when you only want a short
+blast of a few seconds, within the compass of one breath or one filling
+of the bellows (lungs), but often one has to go on blowing through
+several inspirations. It is a trick of muscular action. My master who
+taught me never could do it himself, but by much trying one day I caught
+the trick.
+
+The grand way to learn, in gardening as in all things else, is to wish
+to learn, and to be determined to find out--not to think that any one
+person can wave a wand and give the power and knowledge. And there will
+be plenty of mistakes, and there must be, just as children must pass
+through the usual childish complaints. And some people make the mistake
+of trying to begin at the end, and of using recklessly what may want the
+utmost caution, such, for instance, as strong chemical manures.
+
+Some ladies asked me why their plant had died. They had got it from the
+very best place, and they were sure they had done their very best for
+it, and--there it was, dead. I asked what it was, and how they had
+treated it. It was some ordinary border plant, whose identity I now
+forget; they had made a nice hole with their new trowel, and for its
+sole benefit they had bought a tin of Concentrated Fertiliser. This they
+had emptied into the hole, put in the plant, and covered it up and given
+it lots of water, and--it had died! And yet these were the best and
+kindest of women, who would never have dreamed of feeding a new-born
+infant on beefsteaks and raw brandy. But they learned their lesson well,
+and at once saw the sense when I pointed out that a plant with naked
+roots just taken out of the ground or a pot, removed from one
+feeding-place and not yet at home in another, or still more after a
+journey, with the roots only wrapped in a little damp moss and paper,
+had its feeding power suspended for a time, and was in the position of a
+helpless invalid. All that could be done for it then was a little bland
+nutriment of weak slops and careful nursing; if the planting took place
+in the summer it would want shading and only very gentle watering, until
+firm root-hold was secured and root-appetite became active, and that in
+rich and well-prepared garden ground such as theirs strong artificial
+manure was in any case superfluous.
+
+When the earlier ignorances are overcome it becomes much easier to help
+and advise, because there is more common ground to stand on. In my own
+case, from quite a small child, I had always seen gardening going on,
+though not of a very interesting kind. Nothing much was thought of but
+bedding plants, and there was a rather large space on each side of the
+house for these, one on gravel and one on turf. But I had my own little
+garden in a nook beyond the shrubbery, with a seat shaded by a
+_Boursault elegans_ Rose, which I thought then, and still think, one of
+the loveliest of its kind. But my first knowledge of hardy plants came
+through wild ones. Some one gave me that excellent book, the Rev. C. A.
+Johns' "Flowers of the Field." For many years I had no one to advise me
+(I was still quite small) how to use the book, or how to get to know
+(though it stared me in the face) how the plants were in large related
+families, and I had not the sense to do it for myself, nor to learn the
+introductory botanical part, which would have saved much trouble
+afterwards; but when I brought home my flowers I would take them one by
+one and just turn over the pages till I came to the picture that looked
+something like. But in this way I got a knowledge of individuals, and
+afterwards the idea of broad classification and relationship of genera
+to species may have come all the easier. I always think of that book as
+the most precious gift I ever received. I distinctly trace to its
+teaching my first firm steps in the path of plant knowledge, and the
+feeling of assured comfort I had afterwards in recognising the kinds
+when I came to collect garden plants; for at that time I had no other
+garden book, no means of access to botanic gardens or private
+collections, and no helpful adviser.
+
+One copy of "Johns" I wore right out; I have now two, of which one is in
+its second binding, and is always near me for reference. I need hardly
+say that this was long before the days of the "English Flower-Garden,"
+or its helpful predecessor, "Alpine Plants."
+
+By this time I was steadily collecting hardy garden plants wherever I
+could find them, mostly from cottage gardens. Many of them were still
+unknown to me by name, but as the collection increased I began to
+compare and discriminate, and of various kinds of one plant to throw out
+the worse and retain the better, and to train myself to see what made a
+good garden plant, and about then began to grow the large yellow and
+white bunch Primroses, whose history is in another chapter. And then I
+learnt that there were such places (though then but few) as nurseries,
+where such plants as I had been collecting in the cottage gardens, and
+even better, were grown. And I went to Osborne's at Fulham (now all
+built over), and there saw the original tree of the fine Ilex known as
+the Fulham Oak, and several spring-flowering bulbs I had never seen
+before, and what I felt sure were numbers of desirable summer-flowering
+plants, but not then in bloom. Soon after this I began to learn
+something about Daffodils, and enjoyed much kind help from Mr. Barr,
+visiting his nursery (then at Tooting) several times, and sometimes
+combining a visit to Parker's nursery just over the way, a perfect
+paradise of good hardy plants. I shall never forget my first sight
+here of the Cape Pondweed (_Aponogeton distachyon_) in full flower and
+great vigour in the dipping tanks, and overflowing from them into the
+ditches.
+
+Also I was delighted to see the use as labels of old wheel-spokes. I
+could not help feeling that if one had been a spoke of a cab-wheel, and
+had passed all one's working life in being whirled and clattered over
+London pavements, defiled with street mud, how pleasant a way to end
+one's days was this; to have one's felloe end pointed and dipped in nice
+wholesome rot-resisting gas-tar and thrust into the quiet cool earth,
+and one's nave end smoothed and painted and inscribed with some such
+soothing legend as _Vinca minor_ or _Dianthus fragrans_!
+
+Later I made acquaintance with several of the leading amateur and
+professional gardeners, and with Mr. Robinson, and to their good
+comradeship and kindly willingness to let me "pick their brains" I owe a
+great advance in garden lore. Moreover, what began by the drawing
+together of a common interest has grown into a still greater benefit,
+for several acquaintances so made have ripened into steady and
+much-valued friendships. It has been a great interest to me to have had
+the privilege of watching the gradual growth, through its several
+editions, of Mr. Robinson's "English Flower-Garden," the one best and
+most helpful book of all for those who want to know about hardy flowers,
+offering as it does in the clearest and easiest way a knowledge of the
+garden-treasures of the temperate world. No one who has not had
+occasional glimpses behind the scenes can know how much labour and
+thought such a book represents, to say nothing of research and practical
+experiment, and of the trouble and great expense of producing the large
+amount of pictorial illustration. Another book, though on quite
+different lines, that I find most useful is Mr. Nicholson's "Illustrated
+Dictionary of Gardening," in eight handy volumes. It covers much the
+same ground as the useful old Johnson's "Gardener's Dictionary," but is
+much more complete and comprehensive, and is copiously illustrated with
+excellent wood-cuts. It is the work of a careful and learned botanist,
+treating of all plants desirable for cultivation from all climates, and
+teaching all branches of practical horticulture and such useful matters
+as means of dealing with insect pests. The old "Johnson" is still a
+capital book in one volume; mine is rather out of date, being the
+edition of 1875, but it has been lately revised and improved. It would
+be delightful to possess, or to have easy access to, a good botanical
+library; still, for all the purposes of the average garden lover, these
+books will suffice.
+
+I think it is desirable, when a certain degree of knowledge of plants
+and facility of dealing with them has been acquired, to get hold of a
+clear idea of what one most wishes to do. The scope of the subject is so
+wide, and there are so many ways to choose from, that having one general
+idea helps one to concentrate thought and effort that would otherwise
+be wasted by being diluted and dribbled through too many probable
+channels of waste.
+
+Ever since it came to me to feel some little grasp of knowledge of means
+and methods, I have found that my greatest pleasure, both in garden and
+woodland, has been in the enjoyment of beauty of a pictorial kind.
+Whether the picture be large as of a whole landscape, or of lesser
+extent as in some fine single group or effect, or within the space of
+only a few inches as may be seen in some happily-disposed planting of
+Alpines, the intention is always the same; or whether it is the grouping
+of trees in the wood by the removal of those whose lines are not wanted
+in the picture, or in the laying out of broad grassy ways in woody
+places, or by ever so slight a turn or change of direction in a wood
+path, or in the alteration of some arrangement of related groups for
+form or for massing of light and shade, or for any of the many local
+conditions that guide one towards forming a decision, the intention is
+still always the same--to try and make a beautiful garden-picture. And
+little as I can as yet boast of being able to show anything like the
+number of these I could wish, yet during the flower-year there is
+generally something that at least in part answers to the effort.
+
+I do not presume to urge the acceptance of my own particular form of
+pleasure in a garden on those to whom, from different temperament or
+manner of education, it would be unwelcome; I only speak of what I
+feel, and to a certain degree understand; but I had the advantage in
+earlier life of some amount of training in appreciation of the fine
+arts, and this, working upon an inborn feeling of reverent devotion to
+things of the highest beauty in the works of God, has helped me to an
+understanding of their divinely-inspired interpretations by the noblest
+minds of men, into those other forms that we know as works of fine art.
+
+And so it comes about that those of us who feel and understand in this
+way do not exactly attempt to imitate Nature in our gardens, but try to
+become well acquainted with her moods and ways, and then discriminate in
+our borrowing, and so interpret her methods as best we may to the making
+of our garden-pictures.
+
+I have always had great delight in the study of colour, as the word is
+understood by artists, which again is not a positive matter, but one of
+relation and proportion. And when one hears the common chatter about
+"artistic colours," one receives an unpleasant impression about the
+education and good taste of the speaker; and one is reminded of an old
+saying which treats of the unwisdom of rushing in "where angels fear to
+tread," and of regret that a good word should be degraded by misuse. It
+may be safely said that no colour can be called artistic in itself; for,
+in the first place, it is bad English, and in the second, it is
+nonsense. Even if the first objection were waived, and the second
+condoned, it could only be used in a secondary sense, as signifying
+something that is useful and suitable and right in its place. In this
+limited sense the scarlet of the soldier's coat, and of the pillar-box
+and mail-cart, and the bright colours of flags, or of the port and
+starboard lights of ships, might be said to be just so far "artistic"
+(again if grammar would allow), as they are right and good in their
+places. But then those who use the word in the usual ignorant, random
+way have not even this simple conception of its meaning. Those who know
+nothing about colour in the more refined sense (and like a knowledge of
+everything else it wants learning) get no farther than to enjoy it only
+when most crude and garish--when, as George Herbert says, it "bids the
+rash gazer wipe his eye," or when there is some violent opposition of
+complementary colour--forgetting, or not knowing, that though in detail
+the objects brought together may make each other appear brighter, yet in
+the mass, and especially when mixed up, the one actually neutralises the
+other. And they have no idea of using the colour of flowers as precious
+jewels in a setting of quiet environment, or of suiting the colour of
+flowering groups to that of the neighbouring foliage, thereby enhancing
+the value of both, or of massing related or harmonious colourings so as
+to lead up to the most powerful and brilliant effects; and yet all these
+are just the ways of employing colour to the best advantage.
+
+But the most frequent fault, whether in composition or in colour, is the
+attempt to crowd too much into the picture; the simpler effect obtained
+by means of temperate and wise restraint is always the more telling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE FLOWER-BORDER AND PERGOLA
+
+The flower-border -- The wall and its occupants -- _Choisya ternata_ --
+Nandina -- Canon Ellacombe's garden -- Treatment of colour-masses --
+Arrangement of plants in the border -- Dahlias and Cannas -- Covering
+bare places -- The pergola -- How made -- Suitable climbers -- Arbours
+of trained Planes -- Garden houses.
+
+
+I have a rather large "mixed border of hardy flowers." It is not quite
+so hopelessly mixed as one generally sees, and the flowers are not all
+hardy; but as it is a thing everybody rightly expects, and as I have
+been for a good many years trying to puzzle out its wants and ways, I
+will try and describe my own and its surroundings.
+
+There is a sandstone wall of pleasant colour at the back, nearly eleven
+feet high. This wall is an important feature in the garden, as it is the
+dividing line between the pleasure garden and the working garden; also,
+it shelters the pleasure garden from the sweeping blasts of wind from
+the north-west, to which my ground is much exposed, as it is all on a
+gentle slope, going downward towards the north. At the foot of the wall
+is a narrow border three feet six inches wide, and then a narrow alley,
+not a made path, but just a way to go along for tending the wall
+shrubs, and for getting at the back of the border. This little alley
+does not show from the front. Then the main border, fourteen feet wide
+and two hundred feet long. About three-quarters of the way along a path
+cuts through the border, and passes by an arched gateway in the wall to
+the Pæony garden and the working garden beyond. Just here I thought it
+would be well to mound up the border a little, and plant with groups of
+Yuccas, so that at all times of the year there should be something to
+make a handsome full-stop to the sections of the border, and to glorify
+the doorway. The two extreme ends of the border are treated in the same
+way with Yuccas on rather lesser mounds, only leaving space beyond them
+for the entrance to the little alley at the back.
+
+[Illustration: A FLOWER-BORDER IN JUNE.]
+
+The wall and border face two points to the east of south, or, as a
+sailor would say, south-south-east, half-way between south and
+south-east. In front of the border runs a path seven feet wide, and
+where the border stops at the eastern end it still runs on another sixty
+feet, under the pergola, to the open end of a summer-house. The wall at
+its western end returns forward, square with its length, and hides out
+greenhouses, sheds, and garden yard. The path in front of the border
+passes through an arch into this yard, but there is no view into the
+yard, as it is blocked by some Yews planted in a quarter-circle.
+
+Though wall-space is always precious, I thought it better to block out
+this shorter piece of return wall on the garden side with a hedge of
+Yews. They are now nearly the height of the wall, and will be allowed to
+grow a little higher, and will eventually be cut into an arch over the
+arch in the wall. I wanted the sombre duskiness of the Yews as a rich,
+quiet background for the brightness of the flowers, though they are
+rather disappointing in May and June, when their young shoots are of a
+bright and lively green. At the eastern end of the border there is no
+return wall, but another planting of Yews equal to the depth of the
+border. Notched into them is a stone seat about ten feet long; as they
+grow they will be clipped so as to make an arching hood over the seat.
+
+The wall is covered with climbers, or with non-climbing shrubs treated
+as wall-plants. They do not all want the wall for warmth or protection,
+but are there because I want them there; because, thinking over what
+things would look best and give me the greatest pleasure, these came
+among them. All the same, the larger number of the plants on the wall do
+want it, and would not do without it. At the western end, the only part
+which is in shade for the greater part of the day, is a _Garrya
+elliptica_. So many of my garden friends like a quiet journey along the
+wall to see what is there, that I propose to do the like by my reader;
+so first for the wall, and then for the border. Beyond the _Garrya_, in
+the extreme angle, is a _Clematis montana_. When the _Garrya_ is more
+grown there will not be much room left for the Clematis, but then it
+will have become bare below, and can ramble over the wall on the north
+side, and, in any case, it is a plant with a not very long lifetime, and
+will be nearly or quite worn out before its root-space is reached or
+wanted by its neighbours. Next on the wall is the beautiful Rose Acacia
+(_Robinia hispida_). It is perfectly hardy, but the wood is so brittle
+that it breaks off short with the slightest weight of wind or snow or
+rain. I never could understand why a hardy shrub was created so brittle,
+or how it behaves in its native place. I look in my "Nicholson," and see
+that it comes from North America. Now, North America is a large place,
+and there may be in it favoured spots where there is no snow, and only
+the very gentlest rain, and so well sheltered that the wind only blows
+in faintest breaths; and to judge by its behaviour in our gardens, all
+these conditions are necessary for its well-being. This troublesome
+quality of brittleness no doubt accounts for its being so seldom seen in
+gardens. I began to think it hopeless when, after three plantings in the
+open, it was again wrecked, but at last had the happy idea of training
+it on a wall. Even there, though it is looked over and tied in twice a
+year, a branch or two often gets broken. But I do not regret having
+given it the space, as the wall could hardly have had a better ornament,
+so beautiful are its rosy flower-clusters and pale-green leaves. As it
+inclines to be leggy below, I have trained a Crimson Rambler Rose over
+the lower part, tying it in to any bare places in the _Robinia_.
+
+[Illustration: PATHWAY ACROSS THE SOUTH BORDER IN JULY.]
+
+[Illustration: OUTSIDE VIEW OF THE BRICK PERGOLA SHOWN AT PAGE 214,
+AFTER SIX YEARS' GROWTH.]
+
+Next along the wall is _Solanum crispum_, much to be recommended in our
+southern counties. It covers a good space of wall, and every year shoots
+up some feet above it; indeed it is such a lively grower that it has to
+endure a severe yearly pruning. Every season it is smothered with its
+pretty clusters of potato-shaped bloom of a good bluish-lilac colour.
+After these I wanted some solid-looking dark evergreens, so there is a
+Loquat, with its splendid foliage equalling that of _Magnolia
+grandiflora_, and then Black Laurustinus, Bay, and Japan Privet; and
+from among this dark-leaved company shoots up the tender green of a
+Banksian Rose, grown from seed of the single kind, the gift of my kind
+friend Commendatore Hanbury, whose world-famed garden of La Mortola,
+near Ventimiglia, probably contains the most remarkable collection of
+plants and shrubs that have ever been brought together by one man. This
+Rose has made good growth, and a first few flowers last year--seedling
+Roses are slow to bloom--lead me to expect a good show next season.
+
+In the narrow border at the foot of the wall is a bush of _Raphiolepis
+ovata_, always to me an interesting shrub, with its thick, roundish,
+leathery leaves and white flower-clusters, also bushes of Rosemary, some
+just filling the border, and some trained up the wall. Our Tudor
+ancestors were fond of Rosemary-covered walls, and I have seen old
+bushes quite ten feet high on the garden walls of Italian monasteries.
+Among the Rosemaries I always like, if possible, to "tickle in" a China
+Rose or two, the tender pink of the Rose seems to go so well with the
+dark but dull-surfaced Rosemary. Then still in the wall-border comes a
+long straggling mass of that very pretty and interesting herbaceous
+Clematis, _C. Davidiana_. The colour of its flower always delights me;
+it is of an unusual kind of greyish-blue, of very tender and lovely
+quality. It does well in this warm border, growing about three feet
+high. Then on the wall come _Pyrus Maulei_ and _Chimonanthus_,
+Claret-Vine, and the large-flowered _Ceanothus_ Gloire de Versailles,
+hardy _Fuchsia_, and _Magnolia Soulangeana_, ending with a big bush of
+_Choisya ternata_, and rambling above it a very fine kind of _Bignonia
+grandiflora_.
+
+Then comes the archway, flanked by thick buttresses. A Choisya was
+planted just beyond each of these, but it has grown wide and high,
+spreading across the face of the buttress on each side, and considerably
+invading the pathway. There is no better shrub here than this delightful
+Mexican plant; its long whippy roots ramble through our light soil with
+every sign of enjoyment; it always looks clean and healthy and well
+dressed, and as for its lovely and deliciously sweet flowers, we cut
+them by the bushel, and almost by the faggot, and the bushes scarcely
+look any the emptier.
+
+Beyond the archway comes the shorter length of wall and border. For
+convenience I planted all slightly tender things together on this bit of
+wall and border; then we make one job of covering the whole with
+fir-boughs for protection in winter. On the wall are _Piptanthus
+nepalensis_, _Cistus ladaniferus_, _Edwardsia grandiflora_, and another
+Loquat, and in the border a number of Hydrangeas, _Clerodendron
+foetidum_, _Crinums_, and _Nandina domestica_, the Chinese so-called
+sacred Bamboo. It is not a Bamboo at all, but allied to _Berberis_; the
+Chinese plant it for good luck near their houses. If it is as lucky as
+it is pretty, it ought to do one good! I first made acquaintance with
+this beautiful plant in Canon Ellacombe's most interesting garden at
+Bitton, in Gloucestershire, where it struck me as one of the most
+beautiful growing things I had ever seen, the beauty being mostly in the
+form and colouring of the leaves. It is not perhaps a plant for
+everybody, and barely hardly; it seems slow to get hold, and its full
+beauty only shows when it is well established, and throws up its
+wonderfully-coloured leaves on tall bamboo-like stalks.
+
+There is nothing much more difficult to do in outdoor gardening than to
+plant a mixed border well, and to keep it in beauty throughout the
+summer. Every year, as I gain more experience, and, I hope, more power
+of critical judgment, I find myself tending towards broader and simpler
+effects, both of grouping and colour. I do not know whether it is by
+individual preference, or in obedience to some colour-law that I can
+instinctively feel but cannot pretend even to understand, and much less
+to explain, but in practice I always find more satisfaction and facility
+in treating the warm colours (reds and yellows) in graduated harmonies,
+culminating into gorgeousness, and the cool ones in contrasts;
+especially in the case of blue, which I like to use either in distinct
+but not garish contrasts, as of full blue with pale yellow, or in
+separate cloud-like harmonies, as of lilac and pale purple with grey
+foliage. I am never so much inclined to treat the blues, purples, and
+lilacs in gradations together as I am the reds and yellows. Purples and
+lilacs I can put together, but not these with blues; and the pure blues
+always seem to demand peculiar and very careful treatment.
+
+The western end of the flower-border begins with the low bank of Yuccas,
+then there are some rather large masses of important grey and glaucous
+foliage and pale and full pink flower. The foliage is mostly of the
+Globe Artichoke, and nearer the front of _Artemisia_ and _Cineraria
+maritima_. Among this, pink Canterbury Bell, Hollyhock, Phlox,
+Gladiolus, and Japan Anemone, all in pink colourings, will follow one
+another in due succession. Then come some groups of plants bearing
+whitish and very pale flowers, _Polygonum compactum_, _Aconitum
+lycoctonum_, Double Meadowsweet, and other Spiræas, and then the colour
+passes to pale yellow of Mulleins, and with them the palest blue
+Delphiniums. Towards the front is a wide planting of _Iris pallida
+dalmatica_, its handsome bluish foliage showing as outstanding and yet
+related masses with regard to the first large group of pale foliage.
+Then comes the pale-yellow _Iris flavescens_, and meanwhile the group
+of Delphinium deepens into those of a fuller blue colour, though none of
+the darkest are here. Then more pale yellow of Mullein, Thalictrum, and
+Paris Daisy, and so the colour passes to stronger yellows. These change
+into orange, and from that to brightest scarlet and crimson, coming to
+the fullest strength in the Oriental Poppies of the earlier year, and
+later in Lychnis, Gladiolus, Scarlet Dahlia, and Tritoma. The
+colour-scheme then passes again through orange and yellow to the paler
+yellows, and so again to blue and warm white, where it meets one of the
+clumps of Yuccas flanking the path that divides this longer part of the
+border from the much shorter piece beyond. This simple procession of
+colour arrangement has occupied a space of a hundred and sixty feet, and
+the border is all the better for it.
+
+The short length of border beyond the gateway has again Yuccas and
+important pale foliage, and a preponderance of pink bloom, Hydrangea for
+the most part; but there are a few tall Mulleins, whose pale-yellow
+flowers group well with the ivory of the Yucca spikes and the clear pink
+of the tall Hollyhocks. These all show up well over the masses of grey
+and glaucous foliage, and against the rich darkness of dusky Yew.
+
+Dahlias and Cannas have their places in the mixed border. When it is
+being dismantled in the late autumn all bare places are well dug and
+enriched, so that when it comes to filling-up time, at the end of May, I
+know that every spare bit of space is ready and at the time of
+preparation I mark places for special Dahlias, according to colour, and
+for groups of the tall Cannas where I want grand foliage.
+
+There are certain classes of plants that are quite indispensable, but
+that leave a bare or shabby-looking place when their bloom is over. How
+to cover these places is one of the problems that have to be solved. The
+worst offender is Oriental Poppy; it becomes unsightly soon after
+blooming, and is quite gone by midsummer. I therefore plant _Gypsophila
+paniculata_ between and behind the Poppy groups, and by July there is a
+delicate cloud of bloom instead of large bare patches. _Eryngium
+Oliverianum_ has turned brown by the beginning of July, but around the
+group some Dahlias have been planted, that will be gradually trained
+down over the space of the departed Sea-Holly, and other Dahlias are
+used in the same way to mask various weak places.
+
+There is a perennial Sunflower, with tall black stems, and pale-yellow
+flowers quite at the top, an old garden sort, but not very good as
+usually grown; this I find of great value to train down, when it throws
+up a short flowering stem from each joint, and becomes a spreading sheet
+of bloom.
+
+One would rather not have to resort to these artifices of sticking and
+training; but if a certain effect is wanted, all such means are lawful,
+provided that nothing looks stiff or strained or unsightly; and it is
+pleasant to exercise ingenuity and to invent ways to meet the needs of
+any case that may arise. But like everything else, in good gardening it
+must be done just right, and the artist-gardener finds that hardly the
+placing of a single plant can be deputed to any other hand than his own;
+for though, when it is done, it looks quite simple and easy, he must
+paint his own picture himself--no one can paint it for him.
+
+I have no dogmatic views about having in the so-called hardy
+flower-border none but hardy flowers. All flowers are welcome that are
+right in colour, and that make a brave show where a brave show is
+wanted. It is of more importance that the border should be handsome than
+that all its occupants should be hardy. Therefore I prepare a certain
+useful lot of half-hardy annuals, and a few of what have come to be
+called bedding-plants. I like to vary them a little from year to year,
+because in no one season can I get in all the good flowers that I should
+like to grow; and I think it better to leave out some one year and have
+them the next, than to crowd any up, or to find I have plants to put out
+and no space to put them in. But I nearly always grow these half-hardy
+annuals; orange African Marigold, French Marigold, sulphur Sunflower,
+orange and scarlet tall Zinnia, Nasturtiums, both dwarf and trailing,
+_Nicotiana affinis_, Maize, and Salpiglossis. Then Stocks and China
+Asters. The Stocks are always the large white and flesh-coloured summer
+kinds, and the Asters, the White Comet, and one of the blood-red or
+so-called scarlet sorts.
+
+Then I have yellow Paris Daisies, _Salvia patens_, Heliotrope,
+_Calceolaria amplexicaulis_, Geraniums, scarlet and salmon-coloured and
+ivy-leaved kinds, the best of these being the pink Madame Crousse.
+
+[Illustration: END OF FLOWER-BORDER AND ENTRANCE OF PERGOLA.]
+
+[Illustration: SOUTH BORDER DOOR AND YUCCAS IN AUGUST.]
+
+The front edges of the border are also treated in rather a large way. At
+the shadier end there is first a long straggling bordering patch of
+_Anemone sylvestris_. When it is once above ground the foliage remains
+good till autumn, while its soft white flower comes right with the
+colour of the flowers behind. Then comes a long and large patch of the
+larger kind of _Megasea cordifolia_, several yards in length, and
+running back here and there among taller plants. I am never tired of
+admiring the fine solid foliage of this family of plants, remaining, as
+it does, in beauty both winter and summer, and taking on a splendid
+winter colouring of warm red bronze. It is true that the flowers of the
+two best-known kinds, _M. cordifolia_ and _M. crassifolia_, are
+coarse-looking blooms of a strong and rank quality of pink colour, but
+the persistent beauty of the leaves more than compensates; and in the
+rather tenderer kind, _M. ligulata_ and its varieties, the colour of the
+flower is delightful, of a delicate good pink, with almost scarlet
+stalks. There is nothing flimsy or temporary-looking about the Megaseas,
+but rather a sort of grave and monumental look that specially fits them
+for association with masonry, or for any place where a solid-looking
+edging or full-stop is wanted. To go back to those in the edge of the
+border: if the edging threatens to look too dark and hard, I plant
+among or just behind the plants that compose it, pink or scarlet Ivy
+Geranium or trailing Nasturtium, according to the colour demanded by the
+neighbouring group. _Heuchera Richardsoni_ is another good front-edge
+plant; and when we come to the blue and pale-yellow group there is a
+planting of _Funkia grandiflora_, whose fresh-looking pale-green leaves
+are delightful with the brilliant light yellow of _Calceolaria
+amplexicaulis_, and the farther-back planting of pale-blue Delphinium,
+Mullein, and sulphur Sunflower; while the same colour of foliage is
+repeated in the fresh green of the Indian Corn. Small spaces occur here
+and there along the extreme front edge, and here are planted little
+jewels of colour, of blue Lobelia, or dwarf Nasturtium, or anything of
+the colour that the place demands.
+
+The whole thing sounds much more elaborate than it really is; the
+trained eye sees what is wanted, and the trained hand does it, both by
+an acquired instinct. It is painting a picture with living plants.
+
+I much enjoy the pergola at the end of the sunny path. It is pleasant
+while walking in full sunshine, and when that sunny place feels just a
+little too hot, to look into its cool depth, and to feel that one has
+only to go a few steps farther to be in shade, and to feel that little
+air of wind that the moving summer clouds say is not far off, and is
+only unfelt just here because it is stopped by the wall. It feels
+wonderfully dark at first, this gallery of cool greenery, passing into
+it with one's eyes full of light and colour, and the open-sided
+summer-house at the end looks like a black cavern; but on going into it,
+and sitting down on one of its broad, low benches, one finds that it is
+a pleasant subdued light, just right to read by.
+
+The pergola has two openings out of it on the right, and one on the
+left. The first way out on the right is straight into the nut-walk,
+which leads up to very near the house. The second goes up two or three
+low, broad steps made of natural sandstone flags, between groups of
+Ferns, into the Michaelmas Daisy garden. The opening on the left leads
+into a quiet space of grass the width of the flower and wall border
+(twenty feet), having only some peat-beds planted with Kalmia. This is
+backed by a Yew hedge in continuation of the main wall, and it will soon
+grow into a cool, quiet bit of garden, seeming to belong to the pergola.
+Now, standing midway in the length of the covered walk, with the eye
+rested and refreshed by the leafy half-light, on turning round again
+towards the border it shows as a brilliant picture through the bowery
+framing, and the value of the simple method of using the colours is seen
+to full advantage.
+
+I do not like a mean pergola, made of stuff as thin as hop-poles. If
+means or materials do not admit of having anything better, it is far
+better to use these in some other simple way, of which there are many to
+choose from--such as uprights at even intervals, braced together with a
+continuous rail at about four feet from the ground, and another rail
+just clear of the ground, and some simple trellis of the smaller stuff
+between these two rails. This is always pretty at the back of a
+flower-border in any modest garden. But a pergola should be more
+seriously treated, and the piers at any rate should be of something
+rather large--either oak stems ten inches thick, or, better still, of
+fourteen-inch brickwork painted with lime-wash to a quiet stone-colour.
+In Italy the piers are often of rubble masonry, either round or square
+in section, coated with very coarse plaster, and lime-washed white. For
+a pergola of moderate size the piers should stand in pairs across the
+path, with eight feet clear between. Ten feet from pier to pier along
+the path is a good proportion, or anything from eight to ten feet, and
+they should stand seven feet two inches out of the ground. Each pair
+should be tied across the top with a strong beam of oak, either of the
+natural shape, or roughly adzed on the four faces; but in any case, the
+ends of the beams, where they rest on the top of the piers, should be
+adzed flat to give them a firm seat. If the beams are slightly curved or
+cambered, as most trunks of oak are, so much the better, but they must
+always be placed camber side up. The pieces that run along the top, with
+the length of the path, may be of any branching tops of oak, or of larch
+poles. These can easily be replaced as they decay; but the replacing of
+a beam is a more difficult matter, so that it is well to let them be
+fairly durable from the beginning.
+
+[Illustration: STONE-BUILT PERGOLA WITH WROUGHT OAK BEAMS.]
+
+[Illustration: PERGOLA WITH BRICK PIERS AND BEAMS OF ROUGH OAK. (_See
+opposite page 202._)]
+
+The climbers I find best for covering the pergola are Vines, Jasmine,
+Aristolochia, Virginia Creeper, and Wistaria. Roses are about the worst,
+for they soon run up leggy, and only flower at the top out of sight.
+
+A sensible arrangement, allied to the pergola, and frequent in Germany
+and Switzerland, is made by planting young Planes, pollarding them at
+about eight feet from the ground, and training down the young growths
+horizontally till they have covered the desired roof-space.
+
+There is much to be done in our better-class gardens in the way of
+pretty small structures thoroughly well-designed and built. Many a large
+lawn used every afternoon in summer as a family playground and place to
+receive visitors would have its comfort and usefulness greatly increased
+by a pretty garden-house, instead of the usual hot and ugly, crampy and
+uncomfortable tent. But it should be thoroughly well designed to suit
+the house and garden. A pigeon-cote would come well in the upper part,
+and the face or faces open to the lawn might be closed in winter with
+movable shutters, when it would make a useful store-place for garden
+seats and much else.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE PRIMROSE GARDEN
+
+
+It must be some five-and-twenty years ago that I began to work at what I
+may now call my own strain of Primroses, improving it a little every
+year by careful selection of the best for seed. The parents of the
+strain were a named kind, called Golden Plover, and a white one, without
+name, that I found in a cottage garden. I had also a dozen plants about
+eight or nine years ago from a strong strain of Mr. Anthony Waterer's
+that was running on nearly the same lines; but a year later, when I had
+flowered them side by side, I liked my own one rather the best, and Mr.
+Waterer, seeing them soon after, approved of them so much that he took
+some to work with his own. I hold Mr. Waterer's strain in great
+admiration, and, though I tried for a good many years, never could come
+near him in red colourings. But as my own taste favoured the
+delicately-shaded flowers, and the ones most liked in the nursery seemed
+to be those with strongly contrasting eye, it is likely that the two
+strains may be working still farther apart.
+
+They are, broadly speaking, white and yellow varieties of the strong
+bunch-flowered or Polyanthus kind, but they vary in detail so much, in
+form, colour, habit, arrangement, and size of eye and shape of edge,
+that one year thinking it might be useful to classify them I tried to do
+so, but gave it up after writing out the characters of sixty classes!
+Their possible variation seems endless. Every year among the seedlings
+there appear a number of charming flowers with some new development of
+size, or colour of flower, or beauty of foliage, and yet all within the
+narrow bounds of--white and yellow Primroses.
+
+[Illustration: EVENING IN THE PRIMROSE GARDEN.]
+
+Their time of flowering is much later than that of the true or
+single-stalked Primrose. They come into bloom early in April, though a
+certain number of poorly-developed flowers generally come much earlier,
+and they are at their best in the last two weeks of April and the first
+days of May. When the bloom wanes, and is nearly overtopped by the
+leaves, the time has come that I find best for dividing and replanting.
+The plants then seem willing to divide, some almost falling apart in
+one's hands, and the new roots may be seen just beginning to form at the
+base of the crown. The plants are at the same time relieved of the
+crowded mass of flower-stem, and, therefore, of the exhausting effort of
+forming seed, a severe drain on their strength. A certain number will
+not have made more than one strong crown, and a few single-crown plants
+have not flowered; these, of course, do not divide. During the flowering
+time I keep a good look-out for those that I judge to be the most
+beautiful and desirable, and mark them for seed. These are also taken
+up, but are kept apart, the flower stems reduced to one or two of the
+most promising, and they are then planted in a separate place--some cool
+nursery corner. I find that the lifting and replanting in no way checks
+the growth or well-being of the seed-pods.
+
+I remember some years ago a warm discussion in the gardening papers
+about the right time to sow the seed. Some gardeners of high standing
+were strongly for sowing it as soon as ripe, while others equally
+trustworthy advised holding it over till March. I have tried both ways,
+and have satisfied myself that it is a matter for experiment and
+decision in individual gardens. As nearly as I can make out, it is well
+in heavy soils to sow when ripe, and in light ones to wait till March.
+In some heavy soils Primroses stand well for two years without division;
+whereas in light ones, such as mine, they take up the food within reach
+in a much shorter time, so that by the second year the plant has become
+a crowded mass of weak crowns that only throw up poor flowers, and are
+by then so much exhausted that they are not worth dividing afterwards.
+In my own case, having tried both ways, I find the March sown ones much
+the best.
+
+The seed is sown in boxes in cold frames, and pricked out again into
+boxes when large enough to handle. The seedlings are planted out in
+June, when they seem to go on without any check whatever, and are just
+right for blooming next spring.
+
+The Primrose garden is in a place by itself--a clearing half shaded by
+Oak, Chestnut, and Hazel. I always think of the Hazel as a kind nurse to
+Primroses; in the copses they generally grow together, and the finest
+Primrose plants are often nestled close in to the base of the nut-stool.
+Three paths run through the Primrose garden, mere narrow tracks between
+the beds, converging at both ends, something like the lines of longitude
+on a globe, the ground widening in the middle where there are two
+good-sized Oaks, and coming to a blunt point at each end, the only other
+planting near it being two other long-shaped strips of Lily of the
+Valley.
+
+Every year, before replanting, the Primrose ground is dug over and well
+manured. All day for two days I sit on a low stool dividing the plants;
+a certain degree of facility and expertness has come of long practice.
+The "rubber" for frequent knife-sharpening is in a pail of water by my
+side; the lusciously fragrant heap of refuse leaf and flower-stem and
+old stocky root rises in front of me, changing its shape from a heap to
+a ridge, as when it comes to a certain height and bulk I back and back
+away from it. A boy feeds me with armfuls of newly-dug-up plants, two
+men are digging-in the cooling cow-dung at the farther end, and another
+carries away the divided plants tray by tray, and carefully replants
+them. The still air, with only the very gentlest south-westerly breath
+in it, brings up the mighty boom of the great ship guns from the old
+seaport, thirty miles away, and the pheasants answer to the sound as
+they do to thunder. The early summer air is of a perfect temperature,
+the soft coo of the wood-dove comes down from the near wood, the
+nightingale sings almost overhead, but--either human happiness may never
+be quite complete, or else one is not philosophic enough to contemn
+life's lesser evils, for--oh, the midges!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+COLOURS OF FLOWERS
+
+
+I am always surprised at the vague, not to say reckless, fashion in
+which garden folk set to work to describe the colours of flowers, and at
+the way in which quite wrong colours are attributed to them. It is done
+in perfect good faith, and without the least consciousness of describing
+wrongly. In many cases it appears to be because the names of certain
+substances have been used conventionally or poetically to convey the
+idea of certain colours. And some of these errors are so old that they
+have acquired a kind of respectability, and are in a way accepted
+without challenge. When they are used about familiar flowers it does not
+occur to one to detect them, because one knows the flower and its true
+colour; but when the same old error is used in the description of a new
+flower, it is distinctly misleading. For instance, when we hear of
+golden buttercups, we know that it means bright-yellow buttercups; but
+in the case of a new flower, or one not generally known, surely it is
+better and more accurate to say bright yellow at once. Nothing is more
+frequent in plant catalogues than "bright golden yellow," when bright
+yellow is meant. Gold is not bright yellow. I find that a gold piece
+laid on a gravel path, or against a sandy bank, nearly matches it in
+colour; and I cannot think of any flower that matches or even approaches
+the true colour of gold, though something near it may be seen in the
+pollen-covered anthers of many flowers. A match for gold may more nearly
+be found among dying beech leaves, and some dark colours of straw or dry
+grass bents, but none of these when they match the gold are bright
+yellow. In literature it is quite another matter; when the poet or
+imaginative writer says, "a field of golden buttercups," or "a golden
+sunset," he is quite right, because he appeals to our artistic
+perception, and in such case only uses the word as an image of something
+that is rich and sumptuous and glowing.
+
+The same irrelevance of comparison seems to run through all the colours.
+Flowers of a full, bright-blue colour are often described as of a
+"brilliant amethystine blue." Why amethystine? The amethyst, as we
+generally see it, is a stone of a washy purple colour, and though there
+are amethysts of a fine purple, they are not so often seen as the paler
+ones, and I have never seen one even faintly approaching a really blue
+colour. What, therefore, is the sense of likening a flower, such as a
+Delphinium, which is really of a splendid pure-blue colour, to the
+duller and totally different colour of a third-rate gem?
+
+Another example of the same slip-slop is the term flame-coloured, and
+it is often preceded by the word "gorgeous." This contradictory mixture
+of terms is generally used to mean bright scarlet. When I look at a
+flame, whether of fire or candle, I see that the colour is a rather pale
+yellow, with a reddish tinge about its upper forks, and side wings often
+of a bluish white--no scarlet anywhere. The nearest approach to red is
+in the coals, not in the flame. In the case of the candle, the point of
+the wick is faintly red when compared with the flame, but about the
+flame there is no red whatever. A distant bonfire looks red at night,
+but I take it that the apparent redness is from seeing the flames
+through damp atmosphere, just as the harvest-moon looks red when it
+rises.
+
+And the strange thing is that in all these cases the likeness to the
+unlike, and much less bright, colour is given with an air of conferring
+the highest compliment on the flower in question. It is as if, wishing
+to praise some flower of a beautiful blue, one called it a brilliant
+slate-roof blue. This sounds absurd, because it is unfamiliar, but the
+unsuitability of the comparison is scarcely greater than in the examples
+just quoted.
+
+It seems most reasonable in describing the colour of flowers to look out
+for substances whose normal colour shows but little variation--such, for
+example, as sulphur. The colour of sulphur is nearly always the same.
+Citron, lemon, and canary are useful colour-names, indicating different
+strengths of pure pale yellow, inclining towards a tinge of the palest
+green. Gentian-blue is a useful word, bringing to mind the piercingly
+powerful hue of the Gentianella. So also is turquoise-blue, for the
+stone has little variety of shade, and the colour is always of the same
+type. Forget-me-not blue is also a good word, meaning the colour of the
+native water Forget-me-not. Sky-blue is a little vague, though it has
+come by the "crystallising" force of usage to stand for a blue rather
+pale than full, and not far from that of the Forget-me-not; indeed, I
+seem to remember written passages in which the colours of flower and
+firmament were used reciprocally, the one in describing the other.
+Cobalt is a word sometimes used, but more often misused, for only
+water-colour painters know just what it represents, and it is of little
+use, as it so rarely occurs among flowers.
+
+Crimson is a word to beware of; it covers such a wide extent of ground,
+and is used so carelessly in plant-catalogues, that one cannot know
+whether it stands for a rich blood colour or for a malignant magenta.
+For the latter class of colour the term amaranth, so generally used in
+French plant-lists, is extremely useful, both as a definition and a
+warning. Salmon is an excellent colour-word, copper is also useful, the
+two covering a limited range of beautiful colouring of the utmost value.
+Blood-red is also accurately descriptive. Terra-cotta is useful but
+indefinite, as it may mean anything between brick-red and buff.
+Red-lead, if it would be accepted as a colour-word, would be useful,
+denoting the shades of colour between the strongest orange and the
+palest scarlet, frequent in the lightest of the Oriental Poppies. Amber
+is a misleading word, for who is to know when it means the transparent
+amber, whose colour approaches that of resin, or the pale, almost
+opaque, dull-yellow kind. And what is meant by coral-red? It is the red
+of the old-fashioned dull-scarlet coral, or of the pink kind more
+recently in favour.
+
+The terms bronze and smoke may well be used in their place, as in
+describing or attempting to describe the wonderful colouring of such
+flowers as Spanish Iris, and the varieties of Iris of the _squalens_
+section. But often in describing a flower a reference to texture much
+helps and strengthens the colour-word. I have often described the modest
+little _Iris tuberosa_ as a flower made of green satin and black velvet.
+The green portion is only slightly green, but is entirely green satin,
+and the black of the velvet is barely black, but is quite
+black-velvet-like. The texture of the flower of _Ornithogalum nutans_ is
+silver satin, neither very silvery nor very satin-like, and yet so
+nearly suggesting the texture of both that the words may well be used in
+speaking of it. Indeed, texture plays so important a part in the
+appearance of colour-surface, that one can hardly think of colour
+without also thinking of texture. A piece of black satin and a piece of
+black velvet may be woven of the same batch of material, but when the
+satin is finished and the velvet cut, the appearance is often so
+dissimilar that they may look quite different in colour. A working
+painter is never happy if you give him an oil-colour pattern to match in
+distemper; he must have it of the same texture, or he will not undertake
+to get it like.
+
+What a wonderful range of colouring there is in black alone to a trained
+colour-eye! There is the dull brown-black of soot, and the velvety
+brown-black of the bean-flower's blotch; to my own eye, I have never
+found anything so entirely black in a natural product as the patch on
+the lower petals of _Iris iberica_. Is it not Ruskin who says of
+Velasquez, that there is more colour in his black than in many another
+painter's whole palette? The blotch of the bean-flower appears black at
+first, till you look at it close in the sunlight, and then you see its
+rich velvety texture, so nearly like some of the brown-velvet markings
+on butterflies' wings. And the same kind of rich colour and texture
+occurs again on some of the tough flat half-round funguses, marked with
+shaded rings, that grow out of old posts, and that I always enjoy as
+lessons of lovely colour-harmony of grey and brown and black.
+
+Much to be regretted is the disuse of the old word murrey, now only
+employed in heraldry. It stands for a dull red-purple, such as appears
+in the flower of the Virginian Allspice, and in the native
+Hound's-tongue, and often in seedling Auriculas. A fine strong-growing
+border Auricula was given to me by my valued friend the Curator of the
+Trinity College Botanic Garden, Dublin, to which he had given the
+excellently descriptive name, "Old Murrey."
+
+Sage-green is a good colour-word, for, winter or summer, the sage-leaves
+change but little. Olive-green is not so clear, though it has come by
+use to stand for a brownish green, like the glass of a wine-bottle held
+up to the light, but perhaps bottle-green is the better word. And it is
+not clear what part or condition of the olive is meant, for the ripe
+fruit is nearly black, and the tree in general, and the leaf in detail,
+are of a cool-grey colour. Perhaps the colour-word is taken from the
+colour of the unripe fruit pickled in brine, as we see them on the
+table. Grass-green any one may understand, but I am always puzzled by
+apple-green. Apples are of so many different greens, to say nothing of
+red and yellow; and as for pea-green, I have no idea what it means.
+
+I notice in plant-lists the most reckless and indiscriminate use of the
+words purple, violet, mauve, lilac, and lavender, and as they are all
+related, I think they should be used with the greater caution. I should
+say that mauve and lilac cover the same ground; the word mauve came into
+use within my recollection. It is French for mallow, and the flower of
+the wild plant may stand as the type of what the word means. Lavender
+stands for a colder or bluer range of pale purples, with an inclination
+to grey; it is a useful word, because the whole colour of the flower
+spike varies so little. Violet stands for the dark garden violet, and I
+always think of the grand colour of _Iris reticulata_ as an example of a
+rich violet-purple. But purple equally stands for this, and for many
+shades redder.
+
+Snow-white is very vague. There is nearly always so much blue about the
+colour of snow, from its crystalline surface and partial transparency,
+and the texture is so unlike that of any kind of flower, that the
+comparison is scarcely permissible. I take it that the use of
+"snow-white" is, like that of "golden-yellow," more symbolical than
+descriptive, meaning any white that gives an impression of purity.
+Nearly all white flowers are yellowish-white, and the comparatively few
+that are bluish-white, such, for example, as _Omphalodes verna_, are of
+a texture so different from snow that one cannot compare them at all. I
+should say that most white flowers are near the colour of chalk; for
+although the word chalky-white has been used in rather a contemptuous
+way, the colour is really a very beautiful warm white, but by no means
+an intense white. The flower that always looks to me the whitest is that
+of _Iberis sempervirens_. The white is dead and hard, like a piece of
+glazed stoneware, quite without play or variation, and hence
+uninteresting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN
+
+
+The sweet scents of a garden are by no means the least of its many
+delights. Even January brings _Chimonanthus fragrans_, one of the
+sweetest and strongest scented of the year's blooms--little
+half-transparent yellowish bells on an otherwise naked-looking wall
+shrub. They have no stalks, but if they are floated in a shallow dish of
+water, they last well for several days, and give off a powerful
+fragrance in a room.
+
+During some of the warm days that nearly always come towards the end of
+February, if one knows where to look in some sunny, sheltered corner of
+a hazel copse, there will be sure to be some Primroses, and the first
+scent of the year's first Primrose is no small pleasure. The garden
+Primroses soon follow, and, meanwhile, in all open winter weather there
+have been Czar Violets and _Iris stylosa_, with its delicate scent,
+faintly violet-like, but with a dash of tulip. _Iris reticulata_ is also
+sweet, with a still stronger perfume of the violet character. But of all
+Irises I know, the sweetest to smell is a later blooming one, _I.
+graminea_. Its small purple flowers are almost hidden among the thick
+mass of grassy foliage which rises high above the bloom; but they are
+worth looking for, for the sake of the sweet and rather penetrating
+scent, which is exactly like that of a perfectly-ripened plum.
+
+All the scented flowers of the Primrose tribe are delightful--Primrose,
+Polyanthus, Auricula, Cowslip. The actual sweetness is most apparent in
+the Cowslip; in the Auricula it has a pungency, and at the same time a
+kind of veiled mystery, that accords with the clouded and
+curiously-blended colourings of many of the flowers.
+
+Sweetbriar is one of the strongest of the year's early scents, and
+closely following is the woodland incense of the Larch, both freely
+given off and far-wafted, as is also that of the hardy Daphnes. The
+first quarter of the year also brings the bloom of most of the deciduous
+Magnolias, all with a fragrance nearly allied to that of the large one
+that blooms late in summer, but not so strong and heavy.
+
+The sweetness of a sun-baked bank of Wallflower belongs to April.
+Daffodils, lovely as they are, must be classed among flowers of rather
+rank smell, and yet it is welcome, for it means spring-time, with its
+own charm and its glad promise of the wealth of summer bloom that is
+soon to come. The scent of the Jonquil, Poeticus, and Polyanthus
+sections are best, Jonquil perhaps best of all, for it is without the
+rather coarse scent of the Trumpets and Nonsuch, and also escapes the
+penetrating lusciousness of _poeticus_ and _tazetta_, which in the
+south of Europe is exaggerated in the case of _tazetta_ into something
+distinctly unpleasant.
+
+What a delicate refinement there is in the scent of the wild
+Wood-Violet; it is never overdone. It seems to me to be quite the best
+of all the violet-scents, just because of its temperate quality. It
+gives exactly enough, and never that perhaps-just-a-trifle-too-much that
+may often be noticed about a bunch of frame-Violets, and that also in
+the south is intensified to a degree that is distinctly undesirable. For
+just as colour may be strengthened to a painful glare, and sound may be
+magnified to a torture, so even a sweet scent may pass its appointed
+bounds and become an overpoweringly evil smell. Even in England several
+of the Lilies, whose smell is delicious in open-air wafts, cannot be
+borne in a room. In the south of Europe a Tuberose cannot be brought
+indoors, and even at home I remember one warm wet August how a plant of
+Balm of Gilead (_Cedronella triphylla_) had its always powerful but
+usually agreeably aromatic smell so much exaggerated that it smelt
+exactly like coal-gas! A brother in Jamaica writes of the large white
+Jasmine: "It does not do to bring it indoors here; the scent is too
+strong. One day I thought there was a dead rat under the floor (a thing
+which did happen once), and behold, it was a glassful of fresh white
+Jasmine that was the offender!"
+
+While on this less pleasant part of the subject, I cannot help thinking
+of the horrible smell of the Dragon Arum; and yet how fitting an
+accompaniment it is to the plant, for if ever there was a plant that
+looked wicked and repellent, it is this; and yet, like Medusa, it has
+its own kind of fearful beauty. In this family the smell seems to
+accompany the appearance, and to diminish in unpleasantness as the
+flower increases in amiability; for in our native wild Arum the smell,
+though not exactly nice, is quite innocuous, and in the beautiful white
+Arum or _Calla_ of our greenhouses there is as little scent as a flower
+can well have, especially one of such large dimensions. In Fungi the bad
+smell is nearly always an indication of poisonous nature, so that it
+would seem to be given as a warning. But it has always been a matter of
+wonder to me why the root of the harmless and friendly Laurustinus
+should have been given a particularly odious smell--a smell I would
+rather not attempt to describe. On moist warmish days in mid-seasons I
+have sometimes had a whiff of the same unpleasantness from the bushes
+themselves; others of the same tribe have it in a much lesser degree.
+There is a curious smell about the yellow roots of Berberis, not exactly
+nasty, and a strong odour, not really offensive, but that I personally
+dislike, about the root of _Chrysanthemum maximum_. On the other hand, I
+always enjoy digging up, dividing, and replanting the _Asarums_, both
+the common European and the American kinds; their roots have a pleasant
+and most interesting smell, a good deal like mild pepper and ginger
+mixed, but more strongly aromatic. The same class of smell, but much
+fainter, and always reminding me of very good and delicate pepper, I
+enjoy in the flowers of the perennial Lupines. The only other hardy
+flowers I can think of whose smell is distinctly offensive are _Lilium
+pyrenaicum_, smelling like a mangy dog, and some of the _Schizanthus_,
+that are redolent of dirty hen-house.
+
+There is a class of scent that, though it can neither be called sweet
+nor aromatic, is decidedly pleasing and interesting. Such is that of
+Bracken and other Fern-fronds, Ivy-leaves, Box-bushes, Vine-blossom,
+Elder-flowers, and Fig-leaves. There are the sweet scents that are
+wholly delightful--most of the Roses, Honeysuckle, Primrose, Cowslip,
+Mignonette, Pink, Carnation, Heliotrope, Lily of the Valley, and a host
+of others; then there is a class of scent that is intensely powerful,
+and gives an impression almost of intemperance or voluptuousness, such
+as Magnolia, Tuberose, Gardenia, Stephanotis, and Jasmine; it is strange
+that these all have white flowers of thick leathery texture. In
+strongest contrast to these are the sweet, wholesome, wind-wafted scents
+of clover-field, of bean-field, and of new-mown hay, and the soft
+honey-scent of sun-baked heather, and of a buttercup meadow in April.
+Still more delicious is the wind-swept sweetness of a wood of Larch or
+of Scotch Fir, and the delicate perfume of young-leaved Birch, or the
+heavier scent of the flowering Lime. Out on the moorlands, besides the
+sweet heather-scent, is that of flowering Broom and Gorse and of the
+Bracken, so like the first smell of the sea as you come near it after a
+long absence.
+
+How curiously scents of flowers and leaves fall into classes--often one
+comes upon related smells running into one another in not necessarily
+related plants. There is a kind of scent that I sometimes meet with,
+about clumps of Brambles, a little like the waft of a Fir wood; it
+occurs again (quite naturally) in the first taste of blackberry jam, and
+then turns up again in Sweet Sultan. It is allied to the smell of the
+dying Strawberry leaves.
+
+The smell of the Primrose occurs again in a much stronger and ranker
+form in the root-stock, and the same thing happens with the Violets and
+Pansies; in Violets the plant-smell is pleasant, though without the high
+perfume of the flower; but the smell of an overgrown bed of Pansy-plants
+is rank to offensiveness.
+
+Perhaps the most delightful of all flower scents are those whose tender
+and delicate quality makes one wish for just a little more. Such a scent
+is that of Apple-blossom, and of some small Pansies, and of the wild
+Rose and the Honeysuckle. Among Roses alone the variety and degree of
+sweet scent seems almost infinite. To me the sweetest of all is the
+Provence, the old Cabbage Rose of our gardens. When something
+approaching this appears, as it frequently does, among the hybrid
+perpetuals, I always greet it as the real sweet Rose smell. One expects
+every Rose to be fragrant, and it is a disappointment to find that such
+a beautiful flower as Baroness Rothschild is wanting in the sweet scent
+that would be the fitting complement of its incomparable form, and to
+perceive in so handsome a Rose as Malmaison a heavy smell of decidedly
+bad quality. But such cases are not frequent.
+
+There is much variety in the scent of the Tea-Roses, the actual tea
+flavour being strongest in the Dijon class. Some have a powerful scent
+that is very near that of a ripe Nectarine; of this the best example I
+know is the old rose Goubault. The half-double red Gloire de Rosamène
+has a delightful scent of a kind that is rare among Roses. It has a good
+deal of the quality of that mysterious and delicious smell given off by
+the dying strawberry leaves, aromatic, pungent, and delicately refined,
+searching and powerful, and yet subtle and elusive--the best sweet smell
+of all the year. One cannot have it for the seeking; it comes as it
+will--a scent that is sad as a forecast of the inevitable certainty of
+the flower-year's waning, and yet sweet with the promise of its timely
+new birth.
+
+Sometimes I have met with a scent of somewhat the same mysterious and
+aromatic kind when passing near a bank clothed with the great St. John's
+Wort. As this also occurs in early autumn, I suppose it to be occasioned
+by the decay of some of the leaves. And there is a small yellow-flowered
+Potentilla that has a scent of the same character, but always freely and
+willingly given off--a humble-looking little plant, well worth growing
+for its sweetness, that much to my regret I have lost.
+
+I observe that when a Rose exists in both single and double form the
+scent is increased in the double beyond the proportion that one would
+expect. _Rosa lucida_ in the ordinary single state has only a very
+slight scent; in the lovely double form it is very sweet, and has
+acquired somewhat of the Moss-rose smell. The wild Burnet-rose (_R.
+spinosissima_) has very little smell; but the Scotch Briars, its garden
+relatives, have quite a powerful fragrance, a pale flesh-pink kind,
+whose flowers are very round and globe-like, being the sweetest of all.
+
+But of all the sweet scents of bush or flower, the ones that give me the
+greatest pleasure are those of the aromatic class, where they seem to
+have a wholesome resinous or balsamic base, with a delicate perfume
+added. When I pick and crush in my hand a twig of Bay, or brush against
+a bush of Rosemary, or tread upon a tuft of Thyme, or pass through
+incense-laden brakes of Cistus, I feel that here is all that is best and
+purest and most refined, and nearest to poetry, in the range of faculty
+of the sense of smell.
+
+The scents of all these sweet shrubs, many of them at home in dry and
+rocky places in far-away lower latitudes, recall in a way far more
+distinct than can be done by a mere mental effort of recollection,
+rambles of years ago in many a lovely southern land--in the islands of
+the Greek Archipelago, beautiful in form, and from a distance looking
+bare and arid, and yet with a scattered growth of lowly, sweet-smelling
+bush and herb, so that as you move among them every plant seems full of
+sweet sap or aromatic gum, and as you tread the perfumed carpet the
+whole air is scented; then of dusky groves of tall Cypress and Myrtle,
+forming mysterious shadowy woodland temples that unceasingly offer up an
+incense of their own surpassing fragrance, and of cooler hollows in the
+same lands and in the nearer Orient, where the Oleander grows like the
+willow of the north, and where the Sweet Bay throws up great tree-like
+suckers of surprising strength and vigour. It is only when one has seen
+it grow like this that one can appreciate the full force of the old
+Bible simile. Then to find oneself standing (while still on earth) in a
+grove of giant Myrtles fifteen feet high is like having a little chink
+of the door of heaven opened, as if to show a momentary glimpse of what
+good things may be beyond!
+
+Among the sweet shrubs from the nearer of these southern regions, one of
+the best for English gardens is _Cistus laurifolius_. Its wholesome,
+aromatic sweetness is freely given off, even in winter. In this, as in
+its near relative, _C. ladaniferus_, the scent seems to come from the
+gummy surface, and not from the body of the leaf. _Caryopteris
+Mastacanthus_, the Mastic plant, from China, one of the few shrubs that
+flower in autumn, has strongly-scented woolly leaves, something like
+turpentine, but more refined. _Ledum palustre_ has a delightful scent
+when its leaves are bruised. The wild Bog-myrtle, so common in Scotland,
+has almost the sweetness of the true Myrtle, as has also the
+broad-leaved North American kind, and the Candleberry Gale (_Comptonia
+asplenifolia_) from the same country. The myrtle-leaved Rhododendron is
+a dwarf shrub of neat habit, whose bruised leaves have also a
+myrtle-like smell, though it is less strong than in the Gales. I wonder
+why the leaves of nearly all the hardy aromatic shrubs are of a hard,
+dry texture; the exceptions are so few that it seems to be a law.
+
+If my copse were some acres larger I should like nothing better than to
+make a good-sized clearing, laying out to the sun, and to plant it with
+these aromatic bushes and herbs. The main planting should be of Cistus
+and Rosemary and Lavender, and for the shadier edges the Myrtle-leaved
+Rhododendron, and _Ledum palustre_, and the three Bog-myrtles. Then
+again in the sun would be Hyssop and Catmint, and Lavender-cotton and
+Southernwood, with others of the scented Artemisias, and Sage and
+Marjoram. All the ground would be carpeted with Thyme and Basil and
+others of the dwarfer sweet-herbs. There would be no regular paths, but
+it would be so planted that in most parts one would have to brush up
+against the sweet bushes, and sometimes push through them, as one does
+on the thinner-clothed of the mountain slopes of southern Italy.
+
+Among the many wonders of the vegetable world are the flowers that hang
+their heads and seem to sleep in the daytime, and that awaken as the sun
+goes down, and live their waking life at night. And those that are most
+familiar in our gardens have powerful perfumes, except the Evening
+Primrose (_Oenothera_), which has only a milder sweetness. It is vain to
+try and smell the night-given scent in the daytime; it is either
+withheld altogether, or some other smell, quite different, and not
+always pleasant, is there instead. I have tried hard in daytime to get a
+whiff of the night sweetness of _Nicotiana affinis_, but can only get
+hold of something that smells like a horse! Some of the best of the
+night-scents are those given by the Stocks and Rockets. They are sweet
+in the hand in the daytime, but the best of the sweet scent seems to be
+like a thin film on the surface. It does not do to smell them too
+vigorously, for, especially in Stocks and Wallflowers, there is a
+strong, rank, cabbage-like under-smell. But in the sweetness given off
+so freely in the summer evening there is none of this; then they only
+give their very best.
+
+But of all the family, the finest fragrance comes from the small annual
+Night-scented Stock (_Matthiola bicornis_), a plant that in daytime is
+almost ugly; for the leaves are of a dull-grey colour, and the flowers
+are small and also dull-coloured, and they are closed and droop and look
+unhappy. But when the sun has set the modest little plant seems to come
+to life; the grey foliage is almost beautiful in its harmonious relation
+to the half-light; the flowers stand up and expand, and in the early
+twilight show tender colouring of faint pink and lilac, and pour out
+upon the still night-air a lavish gift of sweetest fragrance; and the
+modest little plant that in strong sunlight looked unworthy of a place
+in the garden, now rises to its appointed rank and reigns supreme as its
+prime delight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS
+
+
+Several times during these notes I have spoken in a disparaging manner
+of the show-table; and I have not done so lightly, but with all the care
+and thought and power of observation that my limited capacity is worth;
+and, broadly, I have come to this: that shows, such as those at the
+fortnightly meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society, and their more
+important one in the early summer, whose object is to bring together
+beautiful flowers of all kinds, to a place where they may be seen, are
+of the utmost value; and that any shows anywhere for a like purpose, and
+especially where there are no money prizes, are also sure to be helpful.
+And the test question I put to myself at any show is this, Does this
+really help the best interests of horticulture? And as far as I can see
+that it does this, I think the show right and helpful; and whenever it
+does not, I think it harmful and misleading.
+
+The love of gardening has so greatly grown and spread within the last
+few years, that the need of really good and beautiful garden flowers is
+already far in advance of the demand for the so-called "florists"
+flowers, by which I mean those that find favour in the exclusive shows
+of Societies for the growing and exhibition of such flowers as Tulips,
+Carnations, Dahlias, and Chrysanthemums. In support of this I should
+like to know what proportion of demand there is, in Dahlias, for
+instance, between the show kinds, whose aim and object is the
+show-table, and the decorative kinds, that are indisputably better for
+garden use. Looking at the catalogue of a leading Dahlia nursery, I find
+that the decorative kinds fill ten pages, while the show kinds,
+including Pompones, fill only three. Is not this some indication of what
+is wanted in gardens?
+
+I am of opinion that the show-table is unworthily used when its object
+is to be an end in itself, and that it should be only a means to a
+better end, and that when it exhibits what has become merely a "fancy,"
+it loses sight of its honourable position as a trustworthy exponent of
+horticulture, and has degenerated to a baser use. When, as in
+Chrysanthemum shows, the flowers on the board are of _no use anywhere
+but on that board_, and for the purpose of gaining a money prize, I hold
+that the show-table has a debased aim, and a debasing influence. Beauty,
+in all the best sense, is put aside in favour of set rules and
+measurements, and the production of a thing that is of no use or value;
+and individuals of a race of plants capable of producing the highest and
+most delightful forms of beauty, and of brightening our homes, and even
+gardens, during the dim days of early winter, are teased and tortured
+and fatted and bloated into ugly and useless monstrosities for no
+purpose but to gain money. And when private gardeners go to these shows
+and see how the prizes are awarded, and how all the glory is accorded to
+the first-prize bloated monster, can we wonder that the effect on their
+minds is confusing, if not absolutely harmful?
+
+Shows of Carnations and Pansies, where the older rules prevail, are
+equally misleading, where the single flowers are arrayed in a flat
+circle of paper. As with the Chrysanthemum, every sort of trickery is
+allowed in arranging the petals of the Carnation blooms: petals are
+pulled out or stuck in, and they are twisted about, and groomed and
+combed, and manipulated with special tools--"dressed," as the show-word
+has it--dressed so elaborately that the dressing only stops short of
+applying actual paint and perfumery. Already in the case of Carnations a
+better influence is being felt, and at the London shows there are now
+classes for border Carnations set up in long-stalked bunches just as
+they grow. It is only like this that their value as outdoor plants can
+be tested; for many of the show sorts have miserably weak stalks, and a
+very poor, lanky habit of growth.
+
+Then the poor Pansies have single blooms laid flat on white papers, and
+are only approved if they will lie quite flat and show an outline of a
+perfect circle. All that is most beautiful in a Pansy, the wing-like
+curves, the waved or slightly fluted radiations, the scarcely
+perceptible undulation of surface that displays to perfection the
+admirable delicacy of velvety texture; all the little tender tricks and
+ways that make the Pansy one of the best-loved of garden flowers; all
+this is overlooked, and not only passively overlooked, but overtly
+contemned. The show-pansy judge appears to have no eye, or brain, or
+heart, but to have in their place a pair of compasses with which to
+describe a circle! All idea of garden delight seems to be excluded, as
+this kind of judging appeals to no recognition of beauty for beauty's
+sake, but to hard systems of measurement and rigid arrangement and
+computation that one would think more applicable to astronomy or
+geometry than to any matter relating to horticulture.
+
+I do most strongly urge that beauty of the highest class should be the
+aim, and not anything of the nature of fashion or "fancy," and that
+every effort should be made towards the raising rather than the lowering
+of the standard of taste.
+
+The Societies which exist throughout the country are well organised;
+many have existed for a great number of years; they are the local
+sources of horticultural education, to which large circles of people
+naturally look for guidance; and though they produce--and especially the
+Rose shows--quantities of beautiful things, it cannot but be perceived
+by all who have had the benefit of some refinement of education, that
+in very many cases they either deliberately teach, or at any rate allow
+to be seen with their sanction, what cannot fail to be debasing to
+public taste.
+
+I will just take two examples to show how obvious methods of leading
+taste are not only overlooked, but even perverted; for it is not only in
+the individual blooms that much of the show-teaching is unworthy, but
+also in the training of the plants; so that a plant that by nature has
+some beauty of form, is not encouraged or even allowed to develop that
+beauty, but is trained into some shape that is not only foreign to its
+own nature, but is absolutely ugly and ungraceful, and entirely stupid.
+The natural habit of the Chrysanthemum is to grow in the form of several
+upright stems. They spring up sheaf-wise, straight upright for a time,
+and only bending a little outwards above, to give room for the branching
+heads of bloom. The stems are rather stiff, because they are half woody
+at the base. In the case of pot-plants it would seem right only so far
+to stake or train them as to give the necessary support by a few sticks
+set a little outwards at the top, so that each stem may lean a little
+over, after the manner of a Bamboo, when their clustered heads of flower
+would be given enough room, and be seen to the greatest advantage.
+
+But at shows, the triumph of the training art seems to be to drag the
+poor thing round and round over an internal scaffolding of sticks, with
+an infinite number of ties and cross-braces, so that it makes a sort of
+shapeless ball, and to arrange the flowers so that they are equally
+spotted all over it, by tying back some almost to snapping-point, and by
+dragging forward others to the verge of dislocation. I have never seen
+anything so ugly in the way of potted plants as a certain kind of
+Chrysanthemum that has incurved flowers of a heavy sort of dull
+leaden-looking red-purple colour trained in this manner. Such a sight
+gives me a feeling of shame, not unmixed with wrathful indignation. I
+ask myself, What is it for? and I get no answer. I ask a practical
+gardener what it is for, and he says, "Oh, it is one of the ways they
+are trained for shows." I ask him, Does he think it pretty, or is it any
+use? and he says, "Well, they think it makes a nice variety;" and when I
+press him further, and say I consider it a very nasty variety, and does
+he think nasty varieties are better than none, the question is beyond
+him, and he smiles vaguely and edges away, evidently thinking my
+conversation perplexing, and my company undesirable. I look again at the
+unhappy plant, and see its poor leaves fat with an unwholesome obesity,
+and seeming to say, We were really a good bit mildewed, but have been
+doctored up for the show by being crammed and stuffed with artificial
+aliment!
+
+My second example is that of _Azalea indica_. What is prettier in a room
+than one of these in its little tree form, a true tree, with tiny trunk
+and wide-spreading branches, and its absurdly large and lovely flowers?
+Surely it is the most perfect room ornament that we can have in tree
+shape in a moderate-sized pot; and where else can one see a tree loaded
+with lovely bloom whose individual flowers have a diameter equal to five
+times that of the trunk?
+
+But the show decrees that all this is wrong, and that the tiny, brittle
+branches must be trained stiffly round till the shape of the plant shows
+as a sort of cylinder. Again I ask myself, What is this for? What does
+it teach? Can it be really to teach with deliberate intention that
+instead of displaying its natural and graceful tree form it should aim
+at a more desirable kind of beauty, such as that of the chimney-pot or
+drain-pipe, and that this is so important that it is right and laudable
+to devote to it much time and delicate workmanship?
+
+I cannot but think, as well as hope, that the strong influences for good
+that are now being brought to bear on all departments of gardening may
+reach this class of show, for there are already more hopeful signs in
+the admission of classes for groups arranged for decoration.
+
+The prize-show system no doubt creates its own evils, because the
+judges, and those who frame the schedules, have been in most cases men
+who have a knowledge of flowers, but who are not people of cultivated
+taste, and in deciding what points are to constitute the merits of a
+flower they have to take such qualities as are within the clearest
+understanding of people of average intelligence and average
+education--such, for instance, as size that can be measured, symmetry
+that can be easily estimated, thickness of petal that can be felt, and
+such qualities of colour as appeal most strongly to the uneducated eye;
+so that a flower may possess features or qualities that endow it with
+the highest beauty, but that exclude it, because the hard and narrow
+limits of the show-laws provide no means of dealing with it. It is,
+therefore, thrown out, not because they have any fault to find with it,
+but because it does not concern them; and the ordinary gardener, to
+whose practice it might be of the highest value, accepting the verdict
+of the show-judge as an infallible guide, also treats it with contempt
+and neglect.
+
+Now, all this would not so much matter if it did not delude those whose
+taste is not sufficiently educated to enable them to form an opinion of
+their own in accordance with the best and truest standards of beauty;
+for I venture to repeat that what we have to look for for the benefit of
+our gardens, and for our own bettering and increase of happiness in
+those gardens, are things that are beautiful, rather than things that
+are round, or straight, or thick, still less than for those that are
+new, or curious, or astonishing. For all these false gods are among us,
+and many are they who are willing to worship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+NOVELTY AND VARIETY
+
+
+When I look back over thirty years of gardening, I see what an
+extraordinary progress there has been, not only in the introduction of
+good plants new to general cultivation, but also in the home production
+of improved kinds of old favourites. In annual plants alone there has
+been a remarkable advance. And here again, though many really beautiful
+things are being brought forward, there seems always to be an undue
+value assigned to a fresh development, on the score of its novelty.
+
+Now it seems to me, that among the thousands of beautiful things already
+at hand for garden use, there is no merit whatever in novelty or variety
+unless the thing new or different is distinctly more beautiful, or in
+some such way better than an older thing of the same class.
+
+And there seems to be a general wish among seed growers just now to
+dwarf all annual plants. Now, when a plant is naturally of a diffuse
+habit, the fixing of a dwarfer variety may be a distinct gain to
+horticulture--it may just make a good garden plant out of one that was
+formerly of indifferent quality; but there seems to me to be a kind of
+stupidity in inferring from this that all annuals are the better for
+dwarfing. I take it that the bedding system has had a good deal to do
+with it. It no doubt enables ignorant gardeners to use a larger variety
+of plants as senseless colour-masses, but it is obvious that many, if
+not most, of the plants are individually made much uglier by the
+process. Take, for example, one of the dwarfest Ageratums: what a silly
+little dumpy, formless, pincushion of a thing it is! And then the
+dwarfest of the China Asters. Here is a plant (whose chief weakness
+already lies in a certain over-stiffness) made stiffer and more
+shapeless still by dwarfing and by cramming with too many petals. The
+Comet Asters of later years are a much-improved type of flower, with a
+looser shape and a certain degree of approach to grace and beauty. When
+this kind came out it was a noteworthy novelty, not because it was a
+novelty, but because it was a better and more beautiful thing. Also
+among the same Asters the introduction of a better class of red
+colouring, first of the blood-red and then of the so-called scarlet
+shades, was a good variety, because it was the distinct bettering of the
+colour of a popular race of garden-flowers, whose red and pink
+colourings had hitherto been of a bad and rank quality.
+
+It is quite true that here and there the dwarf kind is a distinctly
+useful thing, as in the dwarf Nasturtiums. In this grand plant one is
+glad to have dwarf ones as well as the old trailing kinds. I even
+confess to a certain liking for the podgy little dwarf Snapdragons; they
+are ungraceful little dumpy things, but they happen to have come in some
+tender colourings of pale yellow and pale pink, that give them a kind of
+absurd prettiness, and a certain garden-value. I also look at them as a
+little floral joke that is harmless and not displeasing, but they cannot
+for a moment compare in beauty with the free-growing Snapdragon of the
+older type. This I always think one of the best and most interesting and
+admirable of garden-plants. Its beauty is lost if it is crowded up among
+other things in a border; it should be grown in a dry wall or steep
+rocky bank, where its handsome bushy growth and finely-poised spikes of
+bloom can be well seen.
+
+[Illustration: TALL SNAPDRAGONS GROWING IN A DRY WALL.]
+
+[Illustration: MULLEINS GROWING IN THE FACE OF DRY WALL. (_See "Old
+Wall," page 116._)]
+
+One of the annuals that I think is entirely spoilt by dwarfing is
+Love-in-a-Mist, a plant I hold in high admiration. Many years ago I came
+upon some of it in a small garden, of a type that I thought extremely
+desirable, with a double flower of just the right degree of fulness, and
+of an unusually fine colour. I was fortunate enough to get some seed,
+and have never grown any other, nor have I ever seen elsewhere any that
+I think can compare with it.
+
+The Zinnia is another fine annual that has been much spoilt by its
+would-be improvers. When a Zinnia has a hard, stiff, tall flower, with a
+great many rows of petals piled up one on top of another, and when its
+habit is dwarfed to a mean degree of squatness, it looks to me both ugly
+and absurd, whereas a reasonably double one, well branched, and two feet
+high, is a handsome plant.
+
+I also think that Stocks and Wallflowers are much handsomer when rather
+tall and branching. Dwarf Stocks, moreover, are invariably spattered
+with soil in heavy autumn rain.
+
+An example of the improver not knowing where to stop in the matter of
+colouring, always strikes me in the Gaillardias, and more especially in
+the perennial kind, that is increased by division as well as by seed.
+The flower is naturally of a strong orange-yellow colour, with a narrow
+ring of red round the centre. The improver has sought to increase the
+width of the red ring. Up to a certain point it makes a livelier and
+brighter-looking flower; but he has gone too far, and extended the red
+till it has become a red flower with a narrow yellow edge. The red also
+is of a rather dull and heavy nature, so that instead of a handsome
+yellow flower with a broad central ring, here is an ugly red one with a
+yellow border. There is no positive harm done, as the plant has been
+propagated at every stage of development, and one may choose what one
+will; but to see them together is an instructive lesson.
+
+No annual plant has of late years been so much improved as the Sweet
+Pea, and one reason why its charming beauty and scent are so enjoyable
+is, that they grow tall, and can be seen on a level with the eye. There
+can be no excuse whatever for dwarfing this, as has lately been done.
+There are already plenty of good flowering plants under a foot high, and
+the little dwarf white monstrosity, now being followed by coloured ones
+of the same habit, seems to me worthy of nothing but condemnation. It
+would be as right and sensible to dwarf a Hollyhock into a podgy mass a
+foot high, or a Pentstemon, or a Foxglove. Happily these have as yet
+escaped dwarfing, though I regret to see that a deformity that not
+unfrequently appears among garden Foxgloves, looking like a bell-shaped
+flower topping a stunted spike, appears to have been "fixed," and is
+being offered as a "novelty." Here is one of the clearest examples of a
+new development which is a distinct debasement of a naturally beautiful
+form, but which is nevertheless being pushed forward in trade: it has no
+merit whatever in itself, and is only likely to sell because it is new
+and curious.
+
+And all this parade of distortion and deformity comes about from the
+grower losing sight of beauty as the first consideration, or from his
+not having the knowledge that would enable him to determine what are the
+points of character in various plants most deserving of development, and
+in not knowing when or where to stop. Abnormal size, whether greatly
+above or much below the average, appeals to the vulgar and uneducated
+eye, and will always command its attention and wonderment. But then the
+production of the immense size that provokes astonishment, and the
+misapplied ingenuity that produces unusual dwarfing, are neither of them
+very high aims.
+
+And much as I feel grateful to those who improve garden flowers, I
+venture to repeat my strong conviction that their efforts in selection
+and other methods should be so directed as to keep in view the
+attainment of beauty in the first place, and as a point of honour; not
+to mere increase of size of bloom or compactness of habit--many plants
+have been spoilt by excess of both; not for variety or novelty as ends
+in themselves, but only to welcome them, and offer them, if they are
+distinctly of garden value in the best sense. For if plants are grown or
+advertised or otherwise pushed on any other account than that of their
+possessing some worthy form of beauty, they become of the same nature as
+any other article in trade that is got up for sale for the sole benefit
+of the seller, that is unduly lauded by advertisement, and that makes
+its first appeal to the vulgar eye by an exaggerated and showy pictorial
+representation; that will serve no useful purpose, and for which there
+is no true or healthy demand.
+
+No doubt much of it comes about from the unwholesome pressure of trade
+competition, which in a way obliges all to follow where some lead. I
+trust that my many good friends in the trade will understand that my
+remarks are not made in any personal sense whatever. I know that some of
+them feel much as I do on some of these points, but that in many ways
+they are helpless, being all bound in a kind of bondage to the general
+system. And there is one great evil that calls loudly for redress, but
+that will endure until some of the mightiest of them have the energy and
+courage to band themselves together and to declare that it shall no
+longer exist among them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+WEEDS AND PESTS
+
+
+Weeding is a delightful occupation, especially after summer rain, when
+the roots come up clear and clean. One gets to know how many and various
+are the ways of weeds--as many almost as the moods of human creatures.
+How easy and pleasant to pull up are the soft annuals like Chickweed and
+Groundsel, and how one looks with respect at deep-rooted things like
+Docks, that make one go and fetch a spade. Comfrey is another thing with
+a terrible root, and every bit must be got out, as it will grow again
+from the smallest scrap. And hard to get up are the two Bryonies, the
+green and the black, with such deep-reaching roots, that, if not weeded
+up within their first year, will have to be seriously dug out later. The
+white Convolvulus, one of the loveliest of native plants, has a most
+persistently running root, of which every joint will quickly form a new
+plant. Some of the worst weeds to get out are Goutweed and Coltsfoot.
+Though I live on a light soil, comparatively easy to clean, I have done
+some gardening in clay, and well know what a despairing job it is to
+get the bits of either of these roots out of the stiff clods.
+
+The most persistent weed in my soil is the small running Sheep's Sorrel.
+First it makes a patch, and then sends out thready running roots all
+round, a foot or more long; these, if not checked, establish new bases
+of operation, and so it goes on, always spreading farther and farther.
+When this happens in soft ground that can be hoed and weeded it matters
+less, but in the lawn it is a more serious matter. Its presence always
+denotes a poor, sandy soil of rather a sour quality.
+
+Goutweed is a pest in nearly all gardens, and very difficult to get out.
+When it runs into the root of some patch of hardy plant, if the plant
+can be spared, I find it best to send it at once to the burn-heap; or if
+it is too precious, there is nothing for it but to cut it all up and
+wash it out, to be sure that not the smallest particle of the enemy
+remains. Some weeds are deceiving--Sow-thistle, for instance, which has
+the look of promising firm hand-hold and easy extraction, but has a
+disappointing way of almost always breaking short off at the collar. But
+of all the garden weeds that are native plants I know none so persistent
+or so insidious as the Rampion Bell-flower (_Campanula Rapunculus_); it
+grows from the smallest thread of root, and it is almost impossible to
+see every little bit; for though the main roots are thick, and white,
+and fleshy, the fine side roots that run far abroad are very small, and
+of a reddish colour, and easily hidden in the brown earth.
+
+But some of the worst garden-weeds are exotics run wild. The common
+Grape Hyacinth sometimes overruns a garden and cannot be got rid of.
+_Sambucus ebulis_ is a plant to beware of, its long thong-like roots
+spreading far and wide, and coming up again far away from the parent
+stock. For this reason it is valuable for planting in such places as
+newly-made pond-heads, helping to tie the bank together. _Polygonum
+Sieboldi_ must also be planted with caution. The winter Heliotrope
+(_Petasites fragrans_) is almost impossible to get out when once it has
+taken hold, growing in the same way as its near relative the native
+Coltsfoot.
+
+But by far the most difficult plant to abolish or even keep in check
+that I know is _Ornithogalum nutans_. Beautiful as it is, and valuable
+as a cut flower, I will not have it in the garden. I think I may venture
+to say that in this soil, when once established, it cannot be
+eradicated. Each mature bulb makes a host of offsets, and the seed
+quickly ripens. When it is once in a garden it will suddenly appear in
+all sorts of different places. It is no use trying to dig it out. I have
+dug out the whole space of soil containing the patch, a barrow-load at a
+time, and sent it to the middle of the burn-heap, and put in fresh soil,
+and there it is again next year, nearly as thick as ever. I have dug up
+individual small patches with the greatest care, and got out every bulb
+and offset, and every bit of the whitish leaf stem, for I have such
+faith in its power of reproduction that I think every atom of this is
+capable of making a plant, only to find next year a thriving young tuft
+of the "grass" in the same place. And yet the bulb and underground stem
+are white, and the earth is brown, and I passed it all several times
+through my fingers, but all in vain. I confess that it beats me
+entirely.
+
+_Coronilla varia_ is a little plant that appears in catalogues among
+desirable Alpines, but is a very "rooty" and troublesome thing, and
+scarcely good enough for garden use, though pretty in a grassy bank
+where its rambling ways would not be objectionable. I once brought home
+from Brittany some roots of _Linaria repens_, that looked charming by a
+roadside, and planted them in a bit of Alpine garden, a planting that I
+never afterwards ceased to regret.
+
+I learnt from an old farmer a good way of getting rid of a bed of
+nettles--to thrash them down with a stick every time they grow up. If
+this is done about three times during the year, the root becomes so much
+weakened that it is easily forked out, or if the treatment is gone on
+with, the second year the nettles die. Thrashing with a stick is better
+than cutting, as it makes the plant bleed more; any mutilation of bruise
+or ragged tearing of fibre is more harmful to plant or tree than clean
+cutting.
+
+Of bird, beast, and insect pests we have plenty. First, and worst, are
+rabbits. They will gnaw and nibble anything and everything that is
+newly planted, even native things like Juniper, Scotch Fir, and Gorse.
+The necessity of wiring everything newly planted adds greatly to the
+labour and expense of the garden, and the unsightly grey wire-netting is
+an unpleasant eyesore. When plants or bushes are well established the
+rabbits leave them alone, though some families of plants are always
+irresistible--Pinks and Carnations, for instance, and nearly all
+Cruciferæ, such as Wallflowers, Stocks, and Iberis. The only plants I
+know that they do not touch are Rhododendrons and Azaleas; they leave
+them for the hare, that is sure to get in every now and then, and who
+stands up on his long hind-legs, and will eat Rose-bushes quite high up.
+
+Plants eaten by a hare look as if they had been cut with a sharp knife;
+there is no appearance of gnawing or nibbling, no ragged edges of wood
+or frayed bark, but just a straight clean cut.
+
+Field mice are very troublesome. Some years they will nibble off the
+flower-buds of the Lent Hellebores; when they do this they have a
+curious way of collecting them and laying them in heaps. I have no idea
+why they do this, as they neither carry them away nor eat them
+afterwards; there the heaps of buds lie till they rot or dry up. They
+once stole all my Auricula seed in the same way. I had marked some good
+plants for seed, cutting off all the other flowers as soon as they went
+out of bloom. The seed was ripening, and I watched it daily, awaiting
+the moment for harvesting. But a few days before it was ready I went
+round and found the seed was all gone; it had been cut off at the top of
+the stalk, so that the umbel-shaped heads had been taken away whole. I
+looked about, and luckily found three slightly hollow places under the
+bank at the back of the border where the seed-heads had been piled in
+heaps. In this case it looked as if it had been stored for food; luckily
+it was near enough to ripeness for me to save my crop.
+
+The mice are also troublesome with newly-sown Peas, eating some
+underground, while sparrows nibble off others when just sprouted; and
+when outdoor Grapes are ripening mice run up the walls and eat them.
+Even when the Grapes are tied in oiled canvas bags they will eat through
+the bags to get at them, though I have never known them to gnaw through
+the newspaper bags that I now use in preference, and that ripen the
+Grapes as well. I am not sure whether it is mice or birds that pick off
+the flowers of the big bunch Primroses, but am inclined to think it is
+mice, because the stalks are cut low down.
+
+Pheasants are very bad gardeners; what they seem to enjoy most are
+Crocuses--in fact, it is no use planting them. I had once a nice
+collection of Crocus species. They were in separate patches, all along
+the edge of one border, in a sheltered part of the garden, where
+pheasants did not often come. One day when I came to see my Crocuses, I
+found where each patch had been a basin-shaped excavation and a few
+fragments of stalk or some part of the plant. They had begun at one end
+and worked steadily along, clearing them right out. They also destroyed
+a long bed of _Anemone fulgens_. First they took the flowers, and then
+the leaves, and lastly pecked up and ate the roots.
+
+But we have one grand consolation in having no slugs, at least hardly
+any that are truly indigenous; they do not like our dry, sandy heaths.
+Friends are very generous in sending them with plants, so that we have a
+moderate number that hang about frames and pot plants, though nothing
+much to boast of; but they never trouble seedlings in the open ground,
+and for this I can never be too thankful.
+
+Alas that the beautiful bullfinch should be so dire an enemy to
+fruit-trees, and also the pretty little tits! but so it is; and it is a
+sad sight to see a well-grown fruit-tree with all its fruit-buds pecked
+out and lying under it on the ground in a thin green carpet. We had some
+fine young cherry-trees in a small orchard that we cut down in despair
+after they had been growing twelve years. They were too large to net,
+and their space could not be spared just for the mischievous fun of the
+birds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE BEDDING FASHION AND ITS INFLUENCE
+
+
+It is curious to look back at the old days of bedding-out, when that and
+that only meant gardening to most people, and to remember how the
+fashion, beginning in the larger gardens, made its way like a great
+inundating wave, submerging the lesser ones, and almost drowning out the
+beauties of the many little flowery cottage plots of our English
+waysides. And one wonders how it all came about, and why the bedding
+system, admirable for its own purpose, should have thus outstepped its
+bounds, and have been allowed to run riot among gardens great and small
+throughout the land. But so it was, and for many years the fashion, for
+it was scarcely anything better, reigned supreme.
+
+It was well for all real lovers of flowers when some quarter of a
+century ago a strong champion of the good old flowers arose, and fought
+strenuously to stay the devastating tide, and to restore the healthy
+liking for the good old garden flowers. Many soon followed, and now one
+may say that all England has flocked to the standard. Bedding as an
+all-prevailing fashion is now dead; the old garden-flowers are again
+honoured and loved, and every encouragement is freely offered to those
+who will improve old kinds and bring forward others.
+
+And now that bedding as a fashion no longer exists, one can look at it
+more quietly and fairly, and see what its uses really are, for in its
+own place and way it is undoubtedly useful and desirable. Many great
+country-houses are only inhabited in winter, then perhaps for a week or
+two at Easter, and in the late summer. There is probably a house-party
+at Easter, and a succession of visitors in the late summer. A brilliant
+garden, visible from the house, dressed for spring and dressed for early
+autumn, is exactly what is wanted--not necessarily from any special love
+of flowers, but as a kind of bright and well-kept furnishing of the
+immediate environment of the house. The gardener delights in it; it is
+all routine work; so many hundreds or thousands of scarlet Geranium, of
+yellow Calceolaria, of blue Lobelia, of golden Feverfew, or of other
+coloured material. It wants no imagination; the comprehension of it is
+within the range of the most limited understanding; indeed its
+prevalence for some twenty years or more must have had a deteriorating
+influence on the whole class of private gardeners, presenting to them an
+ideal so easy of attainment and so cheap of mental effort.
+
+But bedding, though it is gardening of the least poetical or imaginative
+kind, can be done badly or beautifully. In the _parterre_ of the formal
+garden it is absolutely in place, and brilliantly-beautiful pictures
+can be made by a wise choice of colouring. I once saw, and can never
+forget, a bedded garden that was a perfectly satisfying example of
+colour-harmony; but then it was planned by the master, a man of the most
+refined taste, and not by the gardener. It was a _parterre_ that formed
+part of the garden in one of the fine old places in the Midland
+counties. I have no distinct recollection of the design, except that
+there was some principle of fan-shaped radiation, of which each extreme
+angle formed one centre. The whole garden was treated in one harmonious
+colouring of full yellow, orange, and orange-brown; half-hardy annuals,
+such as French and African Marigolds, Zinnias, and Nasturtiums, being
+freely used. It was the most noble treatment of one limited range of
+colouring I have ever seen in a garden; brilliant without being garish,
+and sumptuously gorgeous without the reproach of gaudiness--a precious
+lesson in temperance and restraint in the use of the one colour, and an
+admirable exposition of its powerful effect in the hands of a true
+artist.
+
+I think that in many smaller gardens a certain amount of bedding may be
+actually desirable; for where the owner of a garden has a special liking
+for certain classes or mixtures of plants, or wishes to grow them
+thoroughly well and enjoy them individually to the full, he will
+naturally grow them in separate beds, or may intentionally combine the
+beds, if he will, into some form of good garden effect. But the great
+fault of the bedding system when at its height was, that it swept over
+the country as a tyrannical fashion, that demanded, and for the time
+being succeeded in effecting, the exclusion of better and more
+thoughtful kinds of gardening; for I believe I am right in saying that
+it spread like an epidemic disease, and raged far and wide for nearly a
+quarter of a century.
+
+Its worst form of all was the "ribbon border," generally a line of
+scarlet Geranium at the back, then a line of Calceolaria, then a line of
+blue Lobelia, and lastly, a line of the inevitable Golden Feather
+Feverfew, or what our gardener used to call Featherfew. Could anything
+be more tedious or more stupid? And the ribbon border was at its worst
+when its lines were not straight, but waved about in weak and silly
+sinuations.
+
+And when bedding as a fashion was dead, when this false god had been
+toppled off his pedestal, and his worshippers had been converted to
+better beliefs, in turning and rending him they often went too far, and
+did injustice to the innocent by professing a dislike to many a good
+plant, and renouncing its use. It was not the fault of the Geranium or
+of the Calceolaria that they had been grievously misused and made to
+usurp too large a share of our garden spaces. Not once but many a time
+my visitors have expressed unbounded surprise when they saw these plants
+in my garden, saying, "I should have thought that you would have
+despised Geraniums." On the contrary, I love Geraniums. There are no
+plants to come near them for pot, or box, or stone basket, or for
+massing in any sheltered place in hottest sunshine; and I love their
+strangely-pleasant smell, and their beautiful modern colourings of soft
+scarlet and salmon-scarlet and salmon-pink, some of these grouping
+beautifully together. I have a space in connection with some formal
+stonework of steps, and tank, and paved walks, close to the house, on
+purpose for the summer placing of large pots of Geranium, with sometimes
+a few Cannas and Lilies. For a quarter of the year it is one of the best
+things in the garden, and delightful in colour. Then no plant does so
+well or looks so suitable in some earthen pots and boxes from Southern
+Italy that I always think the best that were ever made, their shape and
+well-designed ornament traditional from the Middle Ages, and probably
+from an even more remote antiquity.
+
+[Illustration: GERANIUMS IN NEAPOLITAN POTS.]
+
+There are, of course, among bedding Geraniums many of a bad, raw quality
+of colour, particularly among cold, hard pinks, but there are so many to
+choose from that these can easily be avoided.
+
+I remember some years ago, when the bedding fashion was going out,
+reading some rather heated discussions in the gardening papers about
+methods of planting out and arranging various tender but indispensable
+plants. Some one who had been writing about the errors of the bedding
+system wrote about planting some of these in isolated masses. He was
+pounced upon by another, who asked, "What is this but bedding?" The
+second writer was so far justified, in that it cannot be denied that any
+planting in beds is bedding. But then there is bedding and bedding--a
+right and a wrong way of applying the treatment. Another matter that
+roused the combative spirit of the captious critic was the filling up of
+bare spaces in mixed borders with Geraniums, Calceolarias, and other
+such plants. Again he said, "What is this but bedding? These are bedding
+plants." When I read this it seemed to me that his argument was, These
+plants may be very good plants in themselves, but because they have for
+some years been used wrongly, therefore they must not now be used
+rightly! In the case of my own visitors, when they have expressed
+surprise at my having "those horrid old bedding plants" in my garden, it
+seemed quite a new view when I pointed out that bedding plants were only
+passive agents in their own misuse, and that a Geranium was a Geranium
+long before it was a bedding plant! But the discussion raised in my mind
+a wish to come to some conclusion about the difference between bedding
+in the better and worse sense, in relation to the cases quoted, and it
+appeared to me to be merely in the choice between right and wrong
+placing--placing monotonously or stupidly, so as merely to fill the
+space, or placing with a feeling for "drawing" or proportion. For I had
+very soon found out that, if I had a number of things to plant
+anywhere, whether only to fill up a border or as a detached group, if I
+placed the things myself, carefully exercising what power of
+discrimination I might have acquired, it looked fairly right, but that
+if I left it to one of my garden people (a thing I rarely do) it looked
+all nohow, or like bedding in the worst sense of the word.
+
+[Illustration: SPACE IN STEP AND TANK-GARDEN FOR LILIES, CANNAS, AND
+GERANIUMS.]
+
+[Illustration: HYDRANGEAS IN TUBS, IN A PART OF THE SAME GARDEN.]
+
+Even the better ways of gardening do not wholly escape the debasing
+influence of fashion. Wild gardening is a delightful, and in good hands
+a most desirable, pursuit, but no kind of gardening is so difficult to
+do well, or is so full of pitfalls and of paths of peril. Because it has
+in some measure become fashionable, and because it is understood to mean
+the planting of exotics in wild places, unthinking people rush to the
+conclusion that they can put any garden plants into any wild places, and
+that that is wild gardening. I have seen woody places that were already
+perfect with their own simple charm just muddled and spoilt by a
+reckless planting of garden refuse, and heathy hillsides already
+sufficiently and beautifully clothed with native vegetation made to look
+lamentably silly by the planting of a nurseryman's mixed lot of exotic
+Conifers.
+
+In my own case, I have always devoted the most careful consideration to
+any bit of wild gardening I thought of doing, never allowing myself to
+decide upon it till I felt thoroughly assured that the place seemed to
+ask for the planting in contemplation, and that it would be distinctly a
+gain in pictorial value; so there are stretches of Daffodils in one
+part of the copse, while another is carpeted with Lily of the Valley. A
+cool bank is covered with Gaultheria, and just where I thought they
+would look well as little jewels of beauty, are spreading patches of
+Trillium and the great yellow Dog-tooth Violet. Besides these there are
+only some groups of the Giant Lily. Many other exotic plants could have
+been made to grow in the wooded ground, but they did not seem to be
+wanted; I thought where the copse looked well and complete in itself it
+was better left alone.
+
+But where the wood joins the garden some bold groups of flowering plants
+are allowed, as of Mullein in one part and Foxglove in another; for when
+standing in the free part of the garden, it is pleasant to project the
+sight far into the wood, and to let the garden influences penetrate here
+and there, the better to join the one to the other.
+
+[Illustration: MULLEIN (VERBASCUM PHLOMOIDES) AT THE EDGE OF THE FIR
+WOOD.]
+
+[Illustration: A GRASS PATH IN THE COPSE.]
+
+Under the Bracken in both pictures is a wide planting of Lily of the
+Valley, flowering in May before the Fern is up. (_See page 61._)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+MASTERS AND MEN
+
+
+Now that the owners of good places are for the most part taking a
+newly-awakened and newly-educated pleasure in the better ways of
+gardening, a frequent source of difficulty arises from the ignorance and
+obstructiveness of gardeners. The owners have become aware that their
+gardens may be sources of the keenest pleasure. The gardener may be an
+excellent man, perfectly understanding the ordinary routine of garden
+work; he may have been many years in his place; it is his settled home,
+and he is getting well on into middle life; but he has no understanding
+of the new order of things, and when the master, perfectly understanding
+what he is about, desires that certain things shall be done, and wishes
+to enjoy the pleasure of directing the work himself, and seeing it grow
+under his hand, he resents it as an interference, and becomes
+obstructive, or does what is required in a spirit of such sullen
+acquiescence that it is equal to open opposition. And I have seen so
+many gardens and gardeners that I have come to recognise certain types;
+and this one, among men of a certain age, is unfortunately frequent.
+Various degrees of ignorance and narrow-mindedness must no doubt be
+expected among the class that produces private gardeners. Their general
+education is not very wide to begin with, and their training is usually
+all in one groove, and the many who possess a full share of vanity get
+to think that, because they have exhausted the obvious sources of
+experience that have occurred within their reach, there is nothing more
+to learn, or to know, or to see, or to feel, or to enjoy. It is in this
+that the difficulty lies. The man has no doubt done his best through
+life; he has performed his duties well and faithfully, and can render a
+good account of his stewardship. It is no fault of his that more means
+of enlarging his mind have not been within his grasp, and, to a certain
+degree, he may be excused for not understanding that there is anything
+beyond; but if he is naturally vain and stubborn his case is hopeless.
+If, on the other hand, he is wise enough to know that he does not know
+everything, and modest enough to acknowledge it, as do all the greatest
+and most learned of men, he will then be eager to receive new and
+enlarged impressions, and his willing and intelligent co-operation will
+be a new source of interest in life both to himself and his employer, as
+well as a fresh spring of vitality in the life of the garden. I am
+speaking of the large middle class of private gardeners, not of those of
+the highest rank, who have among them men of good education and a large
+measure of refinement. From among these I think of the late Mr. Ingram
+of the Belvoir Castle gardens, with regret as for a personal friend, and
+also as of one who was a true garden artist.
+
+But most people who have fair-sized gardens have to do with the middle
+class of gardener, the man of narrow mental training. The master who,
+after a good many years of active life, is looking forward to settling
+in his home and improving and enjoying his garden, has had so different
+a training, a course of teaching so immeasurably wider and more
+enlightening. As a boy he was in a great public school, where, by
+wholesome friction with his fellows, he had any petty or personal
+nonsense knocked out of him while still in his early "teens." Then he
+goes to college, and whether studiously inclined or not, he is already
+in the great world, always widening his ideas and experience. Then
+perhaps he is in one of the active professions, or engaged in scientific
+or intellectual research, or in diplomacy, his ever-expanding
+intelligence rubbing up against all that is most enlightened and astute
+in men, or most profoundly inexplicable in matter. He may be at the same
+time cultivating his taste for literature and the fine arts, searching
+the libraries and galleries of the civilised world for the noblest and
+most divinely-inspired examples of human work, seeing with an eye that
+daily grows more keenly searching, and receiving and holding with a
+brain that ever gains a firmer grasp, and so acquires some measure of
+the higher critical faculty. He sees the ruined gardens of antiquity,
+colossal works of the rulers of Imperial Rome, and the later gardens of
+the Middle Ages (direct descendants of those greater and older ones),
+some of them still among the most beautiful gardens on earth. He sees
+how the taste for gardening grew and travelled, spreading through Europe
+and reaching England, first, no doubt, through her Roman invaders. He
+becomes more and more aware of what great and enduring happiness may be
+enjoyed in a garden, and how all that he can learn of it in the leisure
+intervals of his earlier maturity, and then in middle life, will help to
+brighten his later days, when he hopes to refine and make better the
+garden of the old home by a reverent application of what he has learnt.
+He thinks of the desecrated old bowling-green, cut up to suit the
+fashion of thirty years ago into a patchwork of incoherent star and
+crescent shaped beds; of how he will give it back its ancient character
+of unbroken repose; he thinks how he will restore the string of
+fish-ponds in the bottom of the wooded valley just below, now a rushy
+meadow with swampy hollows that once were ponds, and humpy mounds, ruins
+of the ancient dikes; of how the trees will stand reflected in the still
+water; and how he will live to see again in middle hours of summer days,
+as did the monks of old, the broad backs of the golden carp basking just
+below the surface of the sun-warmed water.
+
+And such a man as this comes home some day and finds the narrow-minded
+gardener, who believes that he already knows all that can be known about
+gardening, who thinks that the merely technical part, which he
+perfectly understands, is all that there is to be known and practised,
+and that his crude ideas about arrangement of flowers are as good as
+those of any one else. And a man of this temperament cannot be induced
+to believe, and still less can he be made to understand, that all that
+he knows is only the means to a further and higher end, and that what he
+can show of a completed garden can only reach to an average dead-level
+of dulness compared with what may come of the life-giving influence of
+one who has the mastery of the higher garden knowledge.
+
+Moreover, he either forgets, or does not know, what is the main purpose
+of a garden, namely, that it is to give its owner the best and highest
+kind of earthly pleasure. Neither is he enlightened enough to understand
+that the master can take a real and intelligent interest in planning and
+arranging, and in watching the working out in detail. His small-minded
+vanity can only see in all this a distrust in his own powers and an
+intentional slight cast on his ability, whereas no such idea had ever
+entered the master's mind.
+
+Though there are many of this kind of gardener (and with their
+employers, if they have the patience to retain them in their service, I
+sincerely condole), there are happily many of a widely-different nature,
+whose minds are both supple and elastic and intelligently receptive, who
+are eager to learn and to try what has not yet come within the range of
+their experience, who show a cheerful readiness to receive a fresh
+range of ideas, and a willing alacrity in doing their best to work them
+out. Such a servant as this warms his master's heart, and it would do
+him good to hear, as I have many times heard, the terms in which the
+master speaks of him. For just as the educated man feels contempt for
+the vulgar pretension that goes with any exhibition of ignorant vanity,
+so the evidence of the higher qualities commands his respect and warm
+appreciation. Among the gardeners I have known, five such men come
+vividly to my recollection--good men all, with a true love of flowers,
+and its reflection of happiness written on their kindly faces.
+
+But then, on the other hand, frequent causes of irritation arise between
+master and man from the master's ignorance and unreasonable demands. For
+much as the love of gardening has grown of late, there are many owners
+who have no knowledge of it whatever. I have more than once had visitors
+who complained of their gardeners, as I thought quite unreasonably, on
+their own showing. For it is not enough to secure the services of a
+thoroughly able man, and to pay good wages, and to provide every sort of
+appliance, if there is no reasonable knowledge of what it is right and
+just to expect. I have known a lady, after paying a round of visits in
+great houses, complain of her gardener. She had seen at one place
+remarkably fine forced strawberries, at another some phenomenal frame
+Violets, and at a third immense Malmaison Carnations; whereas her own
+gardener did not excel in any of these, though she admitted that he was
+admirable for Grapes and Chrysanthemums. "If the others could do all
+these things to perfection," she argued, "why could not he do them?" She
+expected her gardener to do equally well all that she had seen best done
+in the other big places. It was in vain that I pleaded in defence of her
+man that all gardeners were human creatures, and that it was in the
+nature of such creatures to have individual aptitudes and special
+preferences, and that it was to be expected that each man should excel
+in one thing, or one thing at a time, and so on; but it was of no use,
+and she would not accept any excuse or explanation.
+
+I remember another example of a visitor who had a rather large place,
+and a gardener who had as good a knowledge of hardy plants as one could
+expect. My visitor had lately got the idea that he liked hardy flowers,
+though he had scarcely thrown off the influence of some earlier heresy
+which taught that they were more or less contemptible--the sort of thing
+for cottage gardens; still, as they were now in fashion, he thought he
+had better have them. We were passing along my flower-border, just then
+in one of its best moods of summer beauty, and when its main occupants,
+three years planted, had come to their full strength, when, speaking of
+a large flower-border he had lately had made, he said, "I told my fellow
+last autumn to get anything he liked, and yet it is perfectly wretched.
+It is not as if I wanted anything out of the way; I only want a lot of
+common things like that," waving a hand airily at my precious border,
+while scarcely taking the trouble to look at it.
+
+And I have had another visitor of about the same degree of appreciative
+insight, who, contemplating some cherished garden picture, the
+consummation of some long-hoped-for wish, the crowning joy of years of
+labour, said, "Now look at that; it is just right, and yet it is quite
+simple--there is absolutely nothing in it; now, why can't my man give me
+that?"
+
+I am far from wishing to disparage or undervalue the services of the
+honest gardener, but I think that on this point there ought to be the
+clearest understanding; that the master must not expect from the
+gardener accomplishments that he has no means of acquiring, and that the
+gardener must not assume that his knowledge covers all that can come
+within the scope of the widest and best practice of his craft. There are
+branches of education entirely out of his reach that can be brought to
+bear upon garden planning and arrangement down to the very least detail.
+What the educated employer who has studied the higher forms of gardening
+can do or criticise, he cannot be expected to do or understand; it is in
+itself almost the work of a lifetime, and only attainable, like success
+in any other fine art, by persons of, firstly, special temperament and
+aptitude; and, secondly, by their unwearied study and closest
+application.
+
+But the result of knowledge so gained shows itself throughout the
+garden. It may be in so simple a thing as the placing of a group of
+plants. They can be so placed by the hand that knows, that the group is
+in perfect drawing in relation to what is near; while by the ordinary
+gardener they would be so planted that they look absurd, or unmeaning,
+or in some way awkward and unsightly. It is not enough to cultivate
+plants well; they must also be used well. The servant may set up the
+canvas and grind the colours, and even set the palette, but the master
+alone can paint the picture. It is just the careful and thoughtful
+exercise of the higher qualities that makes a garden interesting, and
+their absence that leaves it blank, and dull, and lifeless. I am
+heartily in sympathy with the feeling described in these words in a
+friend's letter, "I think there are few things so interesting as to see
+in what way a person, whose perceptions you think fine and worthy of
+study, will give them expression in a garden."
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+    Adonis vernalis, 52
+
+    Alcohol, its gravestone, 12
+
+    Alexandrian laurel, 16
+
+    Alströmerias, best kinds, how to plant, 92
+
+    Amelanchier, 52, 182
+
+    Ampelopsis, 43
+
+    Andromeda Catesbæi, 37;
+      A. floribunda and A. japonica, 50;
+      autumn colouring, 128, 165
+
+    Anemone fulgens, 57;
+      japonica, 109, 207
+
+    Aponogeton, 194
+
+    Apple, Wellington, 12;
+      apple-trees, beauty of form, 25
+
+    Aristolochia Sipho, 43
+
+    Arnebia echioides, 56
+
+    Aromatic plants, 235
+
+    Artemisia Stelleriana, 104
+
+    Arum, wild, leaves with cut daffodils, 58
+
+    Auriculas, 54;
+      seed stolen by mice, 260
+
+    Autumn-sown annuals, 113
+
+    Azaleas, arrangement for colour, 69;
+      A. occidentalis, 70;
+      autumn colouring, 128;
+      as trained for shows, 246
+
+
+    Bambusa Ragamowski, 102
+
+    Beauty of woodland in winter, 7, 153
+
+    Beauty the first aim in gardening, 2, 196, 244, 248, 253, 254
+
+    Bedding-out as a fashion, 263 and onward;
+      bedding rightly used, 265
+
+    Berberis for winter decoration, 16;
+      its many merits, 21
+
+    Bignonia radicans, large-flowered variety, 110
+
+    Birch, its graceful growth, 8;
+      colour of bark, 9;
+      fragrance in April, 51;
+      grouped with holly, 152
+
+    Bird-cherry, 182
+
+    Bitton, Canon Ellacombe's garden at, 206
+
+    Blue-eyed Mary, 44
+
+    Books on gardening, 192 and onward
+
+    Border plants, their young growth in April, 51
+
+    Bracken, 87;
+      cut into layering-pegs, 98;
+      careful cutting, 99;
+      when at its best to cut, 106;
+      autumn colouring, 127
+
+    Bramble, colour of leaves in winter, 20;
+      in forest groups, 44;
+      in orchard, 181;
+      American kinds, 182
+
+    Briar roses, 80, 104
+
+    Bryony, the two wild kinds, 43
+
+    Bulbous plants, early blooming, how best to plant, 49
+
+    Bullfinch, a garden enemy, 262
+
+    Butcher's broom, 151
+
+
+    Cactus, hardy, on rock-wall, 119
+
+    Caltha palustris, 52
+
+    Campanula rapunculus, 257
+
+    Cardamine trifoliata, 50
+
+    Carnations, 94;
+      at shows, 243
+
+    Caryopteris mastacanthus, 102
+
+    Ceanothus, Gloire de Versailles, 205
+
+    Cheiranthus, alpine kinds, 62
+
+    Chimonanthus fragrans, 229
+
+    Chionodoxa sardensis and C. Lucilliæ, 32
+
+    Choisya ternata, 63, 71, 205
+
+    Christmas rose, giant kind, 144
+
+    Chrysanthemums, hardy kinds, 144;
+      as trained at shows, 245
+
+    Cistus laurifolius, 37;
+      C. florentinus, 101;
+      C. ladaniferus, 102, 206
+
+    Claret vine, 110
+
+    Clematis cirrhosa, 14;
+      C. flammula when to train, 24;
+      wild clematis in trees and hedges, 43;
+      C. montana, 71, 203;
+      C. Davidiana, 95, 205
+
+    Clergymen as gardeners, 175
+
+    Clerodendron foetidum, 110, 206
+
+    Climbing plants, 202;
+      for pergola, 215
+
+    Colour, of woodland in winter, 19;
+      of leaves of some garden plants, 21;
+      colour-grouping of rhododendrons, 66;
+      of azaleas, 69;
+      colour of foliage of tree pæonies, 73;
+      colour arrangement in the flower-border, 89, 109, 207;
+      colour of bracken in October, 127;
+      of azaleas and andromedas in autumn, 128;
+      of bark of holly, 152;
+      study of, 197;
+      of flowers, how described, 221 and onward
+
+    Copse-cutting, 166
+
+    Corchorus japonicus, 50
+
+    Coronilla varia, 259
+
+    Corydalis capnoides, 50
+
+    Cottage gardens, 4, 185;
+      roses in, 79
+
+    Cottager's way of protecting tender plants, 91
+
+    Cowslips, 59
+
+    Crinums, 206
+
+    Crinums, hybrid, 110, 119;
+      protecting, 146
+
+    Crocuses, eaten by pheasants, 261
+
+
+    Daffodils in the copse, 34;
+      planted in old pack-horse tracks, 48
+
+    Dahlias, staking, 114;
+      digging up, 133
+
+    Delphiniums, 89;
+      grown from seed, 90;
+      D. Belladonna, 91
+
+    Dentaria pinnata, 46
+
+    Deutzia parviflora, 103
+
+    Digging up plants, 139
+
+    Discussions about treatment of certain plants, 3
+
+    Dividing tough-rooted plants, 53;
+      spring-blooming plants, 85;
+      how often, 136;
+      suitable tools, 136 and onward
+
+    Dog-tooth violets, 33, 47
+
+    Doronicum, 53
+
+    Dressing of show flowers, 243
+
+    Dried flowers, 17
+
+    Dwarfing annuals, 249
+
+
+    Edwardsia grandiflora, 206
+
+    Elder trees, 83;
+      elder-wine, 84
+
+    Epilobium angustifolium, white variety, 86
+
+    Epimedium pinnatum, 16, 46
+
+    Erinus alpinus, sown in rock-wall, 121
+
+    Eryngium giganteum, 93;
+      E. maritimum, 93;
+      E. Oliverianum, 93, 209.
+
+    Eulalia japonica, flowers dried, 17
+
+    Evergreen branches for winter decoration, 16
+
+    Everlasting pea, dividing and propagating, 138
+
+    Experimental planting, 183
+
+
+    Felling trees, 162
+
+    Fern Filix foemina in rhododendron beds, 37, 106;
+      Dicksonia punctilobulata, 62;
+      ferns in rock-wall, 120;
+      polypody, 121, 165
+
+    Fern-pegs for layering carnations, 98
+
+    Fern-walk, suitable plants among groups of ferns, 107
+
+    Flower border, 133, 200
+
+    Forms of deciduous trees, beauty of, 25
+
+    Forsythia suspensa and F. viridissima, 50
+
+    Forget-me-not, large kind, 53
+
+    Foxgloves, 270
+
+    Fungi, Amanita, Boletus, Chantarelle, 111
+
+    Funkia grandiflora, 212
+
+
+    Galax aphylla, colour of leaves in winter, 21
+
+    Gale, broad-leaved, 101
+
+    Garden friends, 194
+
+    Garden houses, 215
+
+    Gardening, a fine art, 197
+
+    Garrya elliptica, 202
+
+    Gaultheria Shallon, value for cutting, 16;
+      in rock-garden, 165
+
+    Geraniums as bedding plants, 266 and onward
+
+    Gourds, as used by Mrs. Earle, 18
+
+    Goutweed, 257
+
+    Grape hyacinths, 49, 258
+
+    Grass, Sheep's-fescue, 69
+
+    Grasses for lawn, 147
+
+    Grey-foliaged plants, 207
+
+    Grouping plants that bloom together, 70
+
+    Grubbing, 160;
+      tools, 150, 261
+
+    Guelder-rose as a wall-plant, 71;
+      single kind, 129
+
+    Gypsophila paniculata, 95, 209
+
+
+    Half-hardy border plants in August, 108, 210
+
+    Happiness in gardening, 1, 274
+
+    Hares, as depredators, 260
+
+    Heath sods for protecting tender plants, 91
+
+    Heaths, filling up Rhododendron beds, 37;
+      wild heath among azaleas, 69;
+      cut short in paths, 70;
+      ling, 106
+
+    Hellebores, caulescent kinds in the nut-walk, 9;
+      for cutting, 57, 144;
+      buds stolen by mice, 260.
+
+    Heuchera Richardsoni, 53, 135
+
+    Holly, beauty in winter, 8;
+      grouped with birch, 152;
+      cheerful aspect, 154
+
+    Hollyhocks, the prettiest shape, 105
+
+    Honey-suckle, wild, 43
+
+    Hoof-parings as manure, 133
+
+    Hoop-making, 166, and onward
+
+    Hop, wild, 43
+
+    Hutchinsia alpina, 50
+
+    Hyacinth (wild) in oak-wood, 60
+
+    Hydrangeas, protecting, 146;
+      at foot of wall, 206
+
+    Hyssop, a good wall-plant, 121
+
+
+    Iris alata, 14;
+      I. foetidissima, 120;
+      I. pallida, 129
+
+    Iris stylosa, how to plant, 13;
+      white variety, 14;
+      time of blooming, 33, 164
+
+    Ivy, shoots for cutting, 17
+
+
+    Japan Privet, foliage for winter decoration, 16
+
+    Japan Quince (Cydonia or Pyrus), 50
+
+    Jasminum nudiflorum, 164
+
+    Junction of garden and wood, 34, 270
+
+    Juniper, its merits, 26;
+      its form, action of snow, 27;
+      power of recovery from damage, 29;
+      beauty of colouring, 30;
+      stems in winter dress, 31;
+      in a wild valley, 154, and onward
+
+
+    Kitchen-garden, 179;
+      its sheds, 179, 180
+
+
+    Larch, sweetness in April, 51
+
+    Large gardens, 176
+
+    Lavender, when to cut, 105
+
+    Lawn-making, 146;
+      lawn spaces, 177, 178
+
+    Leaf mould, 149
+
+    Learning, 5, 189, 190, 273
+
+    Lessons of the garden, 6;
+      in wild-tree planting, 154;
+      in orchard planting, 183;
+      of the show-table, 241
+
+    Leucojum vernum, 33
+
+    Leycesteria formosa, 100
+
+    Lilacs, suckers, as strong feeders, good kinds, 23;
+      standards best, 24
+
+    Lilium auratum among rhododendrons, 37, 106;
+      among bamboos, 106
+
+    Lilium giganteum, 95;
+      cultivation needed in poor soil, 142
+
+    Lilium Harrisi and L. speciosum, 106
+
+    Lily of the valley in the copse, 61
+
+    Linaria repens, 259
+
+    London Pride in the rock-wall, 120
+
+    Loquat, 204
+
+    Love-in-a-mist, 251
+
+    Love of gardening, 1
+
+    Luzula sylvatica, 61
+
+
+    Magnolia, branches indoors in winter, 16;
+      magnolia stellata, 50;
+      kinds in the choice shrub-bank, 101
+
+    Mai-trank, 60
+
+    Marking trees for cutting, 151
+
+    Marsh marigold, 52
+
+    Masters and men, 271
+
+    Mastic, 102
+
+    Meconopsis Wallichi, 165
+
+    Medlar, 129
+
+    Megaseas, colour of foliage, 17;
+      M. ligulata, 103;
+      in front edge of flower-border, 211
+
+    Mertensia virginica, 46;
+      sowing the seed, 84
+
+    Mice, 260, 261
+
+    Michaelmas daisies, a garden to themselves, 125;
+      planting and staking, 126;
+      early kinds in mixed border, 135
+
+    Mixed planting, 183;
+      mixed border, 206
+
+    Morells, 59
+
+    Mulleins (V. olympicum and V. phlomoides), 85;
+      mullein-moth, 86, 270
+
+    Muscari of kinds, 49
+
+    Musical reverberation in wood of Scotch fir, 60
+
+    Myosotis sylvatica major, 53
+
+
+    Nandina domestica, 206
+
+    Narcissus cernuus, 12;
+      N. serotinus, 14;
+      N. princeps and N. Horsfieldi in the copse, 48
+
+    Nature's planting, 154
+
+    Nettles, to destroy, 259
+
+    Novelty, 249
+
+    Nut nursery at Calcot, 11
+
+    Nut-walk, 9;
+      catkins, 11;
+      suckers, 11
+
+
+    Oak timber, felling, 60
+
+    Old wall, 72, 116 and onward
+
+    Omphalodes verna, 45
+
+    Ophiopogon spicatum for winter cutting, 16
+
+    Orchard, ornamental, 181
+
+    Orobus vernus, 52;
+      O. aurantiacus, 62
+
+    Othonna cheirifolia, 63
+
+
+    Pæonies and Lent Hellebores grown together, 76
+
+    Pæony moutan grouped with Clematis montana, 70;
+      special garden for pæonies, 72;
+      frequent sudden deaths, 73;
+      varieties of P. albiflora, 74;
+      old garden kinds, 75;
+      pæony species desirable for garden use, 75
+
+    Pansies as cut flowers, 57;
+      at shows, 243
+
+    Parkinson's chapter on carnations, 94
+
+    Pavia macrostachya, 103
+
+    Pea, white everlasting, 95
+
+    Pergola, 212
+
+    Pernettya, 165
+
+    Pests, bird, beast, and insect, 259
+
+    Phacelia campanularia, 63
+
+    Pheasants, as depredators, 261;
+      destroying crocuses, 261
+
+    Philadelphus microphyllus, 103
+
+    Phlomis fruticosa, 103
+
+    Phloxes, 135
+
+    Piptanthus nepalensis, 63, 206
+
+    Planes pollarded, 215
+
+    Planting early, 129;
+      careful planting, 130;
+      planting from pots, 131;
+      careful tree planting, 148
+
+    Platycodon Mariesi, 108
+
+    Plume hyacinth, 49
+
+    Polygala chamæbuxus, 164
+
+    Polygonum compactum, 136;
+      Sieboldi, 258
+
+    "Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden," 18
+
+    Primroses, white and lilac, 44;
+      large bunch-flowered kinds as cut flowers, 58;
+      seedlings planted out, 85;
+      primrose garden, 216
+
+    Primula denticulata, 184
+
+    Progress in gardening, 249
+
+    Prophet-flower (Arnebia), 56
+
+    Protecting tender plants, 145
+
+    Pterocephalus parnassi, 107
+
+    Pyrus Maulei, 50
+
+
+    Queen wasps, 63
+
+    Quince, 128
+
+
+    Rabbits, 260
+
+    Ranunculus montanus, 50
+
+    Raphiolepis ovata, 204
+
+    Rhododendrons, variation in foliage, 35;
+      R. multum maculatum, 35;
+      plants to fill bare spaces among, 37;
+      arrangement for colour, 64 and onward;
+      hybrid of R. Aucklandi, 69;
+      alpine, 165
+
+    Ribbon border, 266
+
+    Ribes, 50
+
+    Robinia hispida, 203
+
+    Rock garden, making and renewing, 115
+
+    Rock-wall, 116 and onward
+
+    Rosemary, 204
+
+    Roses, pruning, tying, and training, 38;
+      fence planted with free roses, 38;
+      Reine Olga de Wurtemburg, 38;
+      climbing and rambling roses, 39;
+      Fortune's yellow, Banksian, 40;
+      wild roses, 43;
+      garden roses: Provence, moss, damask, R. alba, 78;
+      roses in cottage gardens, ramblers and fountains, 79;
+      free growth of Rosa polyantha, 80;
+      two good, free roses for cutting, 80;
+      Burnet rose and Scotch briars, Rosa lucida, 81;
+      tea roses: best kinds for light soil, pegging, pruning, 82;
+      roses collected in Capri, 105;
+      second bloom of tea roses, 110;
+      jam made of hips of R. rugosa, 111, 184;
+      R. arvensis, garden form of, 129;
+      R. Boursault elegans, 192;
+      China, 205;
+      their scents, 235
+
+    Ruscus aculeatus, 151;
+      R. racemosus, 152
+
+    Ruta patavina, a late-flowering rock-plant, 107
+
+
+    Sambucus ebulis, 258
+
+    Satin-leaf (Heuchera Richardsoni), 53
+
+    Scilla maritima, 14;
+      S. sibirica, S. bifolia, 32
+
+    Scents of flowers, 229 and onward
+
+    Scotch fir, pollen, 53;
+      cones opening, 54;
+      effect of sound in fir-wood, 60
+
+    Show flowers, 242
+
+    Show-table, what it teaches, 241
+
+    Shrub-bank, 101;
+      snug place for tender shrubs, 121
+
+    Shrub-wilderness of the old home, 100
+
+    Skimmeas, 101, 165
+
+    Slugs, 262
+
+    Smilacina bifolia, 61
+
+    Snapdragon, 251
+
+    Snowstorm of December 1886, 27
+
+    Snowy Mespilus (Amelanchier), 52
+
+    Solanum crispum, 204
+
+    Solomon's seal, 61
+
+    Spindle-tree, 127
+
+    Spiræa Thunbergi, 50, 104;
+      S. prunifolia, 104
+
+    St. John's worts, choice, 103
+
+    Stephanandra flexuosa, 103
+
+    Sternbergia lutea, 139
+
+    Sticks and stakes, 163
+
+    Storms in autumn, 122
+
+    Styrax japonica, 101
+
+    Suckers of nuts, 11;
+      robbers, how to remove, 24;
+      on grafted rhododendrons, 36
+
+    Sunflowers, perennial, 134
+
+    Sweetbriar, rambling, 39;
+      fragrance in April, 51
+
+    Sweet-leaved small shrubs, 34, 57, 101
+
+    Sweet peas, autumn sown, 83, 112
+
+
+    Thatching with hoop-chips, 169
+
+    Thinning the nut-walk, 10;
+      thinning shrubs, 22;
+      trees in copse, 151
+
+    Tiarella cordifolia, 53;
+      colour of leaves in winter, 21
+
+    Tools for dividing, 136;
+      for tree cutting and grubbing, 150;
+      woodman's, 158;
+      axe and wedge, 159;
+      rollers, 160;
+      cross-cut saw, 162
+
+    Training the eye, 4;
+      training Clematis flammula, 24
+
+    Transplanting large trees, 147
+
+    Trillium grandiflorum, 61
+
+    Tritomas, protecting, 146
+
+    Tulips, show kinds and their origin, 55;
+      T. retroflexa, 55;
+      other good garden kinds, 56
+
+
+    Various ways of gardening, 3
+
+    Verbascum olympicum and V. phlomoides, 85
+
+    Villa garden, 171
+
+    Vinca acutiflora, 139
+
+    Vine, black Hamburg at Calcot, 12;
+      as a wall-plant, 42;
+      good garden kinds, 42;
+      claret vine, 110, 205;
+      Vitis Coignettii, 123
+
+    Violets, the pale St. Helena, 45;
+      Czar, 140
+
+    Virginian cowslip, 46;
+      its colouring, 47;
+      sowing seed, 84
+
+
+    Wall pennywort, 120
+
+    Water-elder, a beautiful neglected shrub, 123
+
+    Weeds, 256
+
+    Wild gardening misunderstood, 269
+
+    Wilson, Mr. G. F.'s garden at Wisley, 184
+
+    Window garden, 185
+
+    Winter, beauty of woodland, 7
+
+    Wistaria chinensis, 43
+
+    Whortleberry under Scotch fir, 51, 61
+
+    Woodman at work, 158
+
+    Woodruff, 60
+
+    Wood-rush, 61, 165
+
+    Wood-work, 163
+
+
+    Xanthoceras sorbifolia, 103
+
+
+    Yellow everlasting, 120
+
+    Yuccas, some of the best kinds, 91;
+      in flower-border, 201
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+    Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+    Edinburgh & London
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+  1. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+  (where both are acceptable usage)
+  2. Inconsistencies in the use of capitalisation and spelling within
+  botanical names have been retained from the original (where both are
+  acceptable usage).
+  3. Punctuation has been normalised.
+  4. Page numbering format in the index has been standardised.
+  5. The following words have been changed:
+
+  p. 52 Amelancheir to Amelanchier: The snowy Mespilus (_Amelanchier_)
+  p. 89 at to as: such as Globe Artichoke
+  p. 93 Olivieranum to Oliverianum: useful is _E. Oliverianum_
+  p. 109 Rudbekia to Rudbeckia: _Rudbeckia Newmanni_ reflects
+  p. 110 accomypaning to accompanying: the accompanying attacks
+  p. 100 Ailantus to Ailanthus: and Ailanthus and Hickory
+  p. 138 Olivieranum to Oliverianum: and _Eryngium Oliverianum_.
+  p. 206 foetidium to foetidum: Hydrangeas, _Clerodendron foetidum_
+  p. 209 Olivieranum to Oliverianum: _Eryngium Oliverianum_ has turned
+  p. 281 ladaniferns to ladaniferus: C. ladaniferus, 102, 206
+  p. 281 Olivieranum to Oliverianum: E. Oliverianum, 93, 209
+  p. 285 Coignetti to Coignettii: Vitis Coignettii, 123
+
+  6. p. 170 in the bill of sale, a "letter" best described as an inverted
+  V, is here represented by [V]: IIXXX·I·, IIXXXX·II[V] IIII[V]XX, IIXX
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wood and Garden, by Gertrude Jekyll
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOOD AND GARDEN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 36279-8.txt or 36279-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/2/7/36279/
+
+Produced by StevenGibbs, Tracey-Ann Mayor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/36279-8.zip b/36279-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..939d3de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-8.zip
diff --git a/36279-h.zip b/36279-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ac139aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h.zip
diff --git a/36279-h/36279-h.htm b/36279-h/36279-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..62c479c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/36279-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,8613 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ -->
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Wood and Garden, by Gertrude Jekyll.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 15%;
+    margin-right: 15%;
+}
+
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+    text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+p {
+    margin-top: .75em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: .75em;
+}
+
+hr {
+    width: 33%;
+    margin-top: 2em;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+    /* visibility: hidden; */
+    position: absolute;
+    left: 92%;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    text-align: right;
+} /* page numbers */
+
+.blockquot {
+    margin-left: 5%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+.alignleft {margin-left: -5%;}
+
+.bb       {border-bottom: solid 2px;}
+
+.bill	  {font-size: 20px;
+          text-align: center;}
+
+.bl       {border-left: solid 2px;}
+
+.bt       {border-top: solid 2px;}
+
+.br       {border-right: solid 2px;}
+
+.bbox     {border: solid 2px;}
+
+.center   {text-align: center;}
+
+.indent   {text-indent: 2%;}
+
+.right    {text-align: right;}
+
+.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
+
+.caption  {font-weight: bold;
+           font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+/* Images */
+.figcenter   {
+    margin-top: 30px;
+    margin-bottom: 30px;
+    margin-right: auto;
+    margin-left: auto;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.floatright {float: right; clear: right; text-align: center;
+         padding: 5px; margin: 10px 0px 25px 0;}
+
+.floatleft {float: left; clear: left; text-align: center;
+         padding: 5px; margin: 10px 0px 25px 0;}
+
+.floatrightnew {float: right; clear: right; text-align: center;
+         padding: 5px; margin: 10px 0 0 0;}
+
+.floatleftnew {float: left; clear: left; text-align: center;
+         padding: 5px; margin: 10px 0 0 0;}
+
+.nofloat {clear: both;}
+
+
+
+
+
+/* Footnotes */
+.footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+
+.footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+.footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration:
+    none;
+}
+
+.malign {position:absolute; right: 25%; top: auto;}
+.m2align {position:absolute; right: 27%; top: auto;}
+.ralign {position: absolute; right: 15%; top: auto;}
+.toc {margin-left: 5%;
+      margin-right: 15%;
+}
+
+/* Transcriber's Notes */
+
+ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted black;}
+.tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;}
+
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wood and Garden, by Gertrude Jekyll
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Wood and Garden
+       Notes and thoughts, practical and critical, of a working amateur
+
+Author: Gertrude Jekyll
+
+Release Date: June 1, 2011 [EBook #36279]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOOD AND GARDEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by StevenGibbs, Tracey-Ann Mayor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1><a id="frontispiece" name="frontispiece">WOOD AND GARDEN</a></h1>
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 264px;">
+<img src="images/front_a.jpg" width="264" height="400" alt="Frontispiece." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Frontispiece.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+
+
+
+<h1>WOOD AND GARDEN</h1>
+<h2>NOTES AND THOUGHTS, PRACTICAL AND<br />
+CRITICAL, OF A WORKING AMATEUR<br />
+<br />
+BY<br />
+<br />
+GERTRUDE JEKYLL</h2>
+
+<div class="center"><br /><i>With 71 Illustrations from Photographs<br />
+by the Author</i><br /><br /><br /></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/decoration_a.png" width="250" height="253" alt="Gertrude Jekyll Floral Emblem" title="" />
+<br /></div>
+
+<h3><br />SECOND EDITION<br /></h3>
+
+<h3><br /><br />LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.</h3>
+<h4>39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON<br />
+NEW YORK AND BOMBAY<br /><br /></h4>
+
+<p class="center">1899</p>
+
+<p class="center"><br /><br /><i>All rights reserved</i></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 20%;" />
+<p class="center">Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co.</span><br />
+At the Ballantyne Press <br /></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>PREFACE</h2><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_v" name="Page_v"></a>[v]</div>
+
+
+<p>From its simple nature, this book seems scarcely to need any prefatory
+remarks, with the exception only of certain acknowledgments.</p>
+
+<p>A portion of the contents (about one-third) appeared during the years
+1896 and 1897 in the pages of the <i>Guardian</i>, as "Notes from Garden and
+Woodland." I am indebted to the courtesy of the editor and proprietors
+of that journal for permission to republish these notes.</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of the photographs from which the illustrations have
+been prepared were done on my own ground&mdash;a space of some fifteen acres.
+Some of them, owing to my want of technical ability as a photographer,
+were very weak, and have only been rendered available by the skill of
+the reproducer, for whose careful work my thanks are due.</p>
+
+<p>A small number of the photographs were done for reproduction in
+wood-engraving for Mr. Robinson's <i>Garden</i>, <i>Gardening Illustrated</i>, and
+<i>English Flower Garden</i>. I have his kind permission to use the original
+plates.</p>
+
+
+<p class="right">G. J.<br /></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS<br /><br /></h2><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_vii" name="Page_vii"></a>[vii]</div>
+
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+
+<p><span class="alignleft">&nbsp;</span><span class="ralign">PAGES</span></p>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">INTRODUCTORY</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_001">1</a>-6</span></p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER II</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">JANUARY</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_007">7</a>-18</span></p>
+
+<p>Beauty of woodland in winter &mdash; The nut-walk &mdash; Thinning the
+overgrowth &mdash; A nut nursery &mdash; <i>Iris stylosa</i> &mdash; Its culture &mdash;
+Its home in Algeria &mdash; Discovery of the white variety &mdash;
+Flowers and branches for indoor decoration.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER III</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">FEBRUARY</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_019">19</a>-31</span></p>
+
+<p>Distant promise of summer &mdash; Ivy-berries &mdash; Coloured leaves &mdash;
+<i>Berberis Aquifolium</i> &mdash; Its many merits &mdash; Thinning and
+pruning shrubs &mdash; Lilacs &mdash; Removing Suckers &mdash; Training
+<i>Clematis flammula</i> &mdash; Forms of trees &mdash; Juniper, a neglected
+native evergreen &mdash; Effect of snow &mdash; Power of recovery &mdash;
+Beauty of colour &mdash; Moss-grown stems.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">MARCH</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_032">32</a>-45</span></p>
+
+<p>Flowering bulbs &mdash; Dog-tooth Violet &mdash; Rock-garden &mdash; Variety
+of Rhododendron foliage &mdash; A beautiful old kind &mdash; Suckers on
+grafted plants &mdash; Plants for filling up the beds &mdash; Heaths &mdash;
+Andromedas &mdash; Lady Fern &mdash; <i>Lilium auratum</i> &mdash; Pruning Roses &mdash;
+Training and tying climbing plants &mdash; Climbing and free-growing
+Roses &mdash; The Vine the best wall-covering &mdash; Other climbers &mdash;
+Wild Clematis &mdash; Wild Rose.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER V</h3><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii" name="Page_viii"></a>[viii]</div>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">APRIL</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_046">46</a>-58</span></p>
+
+<p>Woodland spring flowers &mdash; Daffodils in the copse &mdash; Grape
+Hyacinths and other spring bulbs &mdash; How best to plant them &mdash;
+Flowering shrubs &mdash; Rock-plants &mdash; Sweet scents of April &mdash;
+Snowy Mespilus, Marsh Marigolds, and other spring flowers &mdash;
+Primrose garden &mdash; Pollen of Scotch Fir &mdash; Opening seed-pods of
+Fir and Gorse &mdash; Auriculas &mdash; Tulips &mdash; Small shrubs for
+rock-garden &mdash; Daffodils as cut flowers &mdash; Lent Hellebores &mdash;
+Primroses &mdash; Leaves of wild Arum.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">MAY</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_059">59</a>-76</span></p>
+
+<p>Cowslips &mdash; Morells &mdash; Woodruff &mdash; Felling oak timber &mdash;
+Trillium and other wood-plants &mdash; Lily of the Valley
+naturalised &mdash; Rock-wall flowers &mdash; Two good wall-shrubs &mdash;
+Queen wasps &mdash; Rhododendrons &mdash; Arrangement for colour &mdash;
+Separate colour-groups &mdash; Difficulty of choosing &mdash; Hardy
+Azaleas &mdash; Grouping flowers that bloom together &mdash; Guelder-rose
+as climber &mdash; The garden-wall door &mdash; The Pæony garden &mdash;
+Moutans &mdash; Pæony varieties &mdash; Species desirable for garden.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">JUNE</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_077">77</a>-88</span></p>
+
+<p>The gladness of June &mdash; The time of Roses &mdash; Garden Roses &mdash;
+Reine Blanche &mdash; The old white Rose &mdash; Old garden Roses as
+standards &mdash; Climbing and rambling Roses &mdash; Scotch Briars &mdash;
+Hybrid Perpetuals a difficulty &mdash; Tea Roses &mdash; Pruning &mdash; Sweet
+Peas autumn sown &mdash; Elder-trees &mdash; Virginian Cowslip &mdash;
+Dividing spring-blooming plants &mdash; Two best Mulleins &mdash; White
+French Willow &mdash; Bracken.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">JULY</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_089">89</a>-99</span></p>
+
+<p>Scarcity of flowers &mdash; Delphiniums &mdash; Yuccas &mdash; Cottager's way
+of protecting tender plants &mdash; Alströmerias &mdash; Carnations &mdash;
+Gypsophila &mdash; <i>Lilium giganteum</i> &mdash; Cutting fern-pegs.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ix" name="Page_ix"></a>[ix]</div>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">AUGUST</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_100">100</a>-111</span></p>
+
+<p>Leycesteria &mdash; Early recollections &mdash; Bank of choice shrubs &mdash;
+Bank of Briar Roses &mdash; Hollyhocks &mdash; Lavender &mdash; Lilies &mdash;
+Bracken and Heaths &mdash; The Fern-walk &mdash; Late-blooming
+rock-plants &mdash; Autumn flowers &mdash; Tea Roses &mdash; Fruit of <i>Rosa
+rugosa</i> &mdash; Fungi &mdash; Chantarelle.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER X</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">SEPTEMBER</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_112">112</a>-124</span></p>
+
+<p>Sowing Sweet Peas &mdash; Autumn-sown annuals &mdash; Dahlias &mdash;
+Worthless kinds &mdash; Staking &mdash; Planting the rock-garden &mdash;
+Growing small plants in a wall &mdash; The old wall &mdash; Dry-walling
+&mdash; How built &mdash; How planted &mdash; Hyssop &mdash; A destructive storm &mdash;
+Berries of Water-elder &mdash; Beginning ground-work.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">OCTOBER</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_125">125</a>-143</span></p>
+
+<p>Michaelmas Daisies &mdash; Arranging and staking &mdash; Spindle-tree &mdash;
+Autumn colour of Azaleas &mdash; Quinces &mdash; Medlars &mdash; Advantage of
+early planting of shrubs &mdash; Careful planting &mdash; Pot-bound roots
+&mdash; Cypress hedge &mdash; Planting in difficult places &mdash; Hardy
+flower border &mdash; Lifting Dahlias &mdash; Dividing hardy plants &mdash;
+Dividing tools &mdash; Plants difficult to divide &mdash; Periwinkles &mdash;
+Sternbergia &mdash; Czar Violets &mdash; Deep cultivation for <i>Lilium
+giganteum</i>.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XII</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">NOVEMBER</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_144">144</a>-157</span></p>
+
+<p>Giant Christmas Rose &mdash; Hardy Chrysanthemums &mdash; Sheltering
+tender shrubs &mdash; Turfing by inoculation &mdash; Transplanting large
+trees &mdash; Sir Henry Steuart's experience early in the century &mdash;
+Collecting fallen leaves &mdash; Preparing grubbing tools &mdash;
+Butcher's Broom &mdash; Alexandrian Laurel &mdash; Hollies and Birches &mdash;
+A lesson in planting.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XIII</h3><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_x" name="Page_x"></a>[x]</div>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">DECEMBER</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_158">158</a>-170</span></p>
+
+<p>The woodman at work &mdash; Tree-cutting in frosty weather &mdash;
+Preparing sticks and stakes &mdash; Winter Jasmine &mdash; Ferns in the
+wood-walk &mdash; Winter colour of evergreen shrubs &mdash; Copse-cutting
+&mdash; Hoop-making &mdash; Tools used &mdash; Sizes of hoops &mdash; Men camping
+out &mdash; Thatching with hoop-chips &mdash; The old thatcher's bill.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">LARGE AND SMALL GARDENS</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_171">171</a>-187</span></p>
+
+<p>A well done villa-garden &mdash; A small town-garden &mdash; Two
+delightful gardens of small size &mdash; Twenty acres within the
+walls &mdash; A large country house and its garden &mdash; Terrace &mdash;
+Lawn &mdash; Parterre &mdash; Free garden &mdash; Kitchen garden &mdash; Buildings
+&mdash; Ornamental orchard &mdash; Instructive mixed gardens &mdash; Mr.
+Wilson's at Wisley &mdash; A window garden.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">BEGINNING AND LEARNING</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_188">188</a>-199</span></p>
+
+<p>The ignorant questioner &mdash; Beginning at the end &mdash; An example
+&mdash; Personal experience &mdash; Absence of outer help &mdash; Johns'
+"Flowers of the Field" &mdash; Collecting plants &mdash; Nurseries near
+London &mdash; Wheel-spokes as labels &mdash; Garden friends &mdash; Mr.
+Robinson's "English Flower-Garden" &mdash; Mr. Nicholson's
+"Dictionary of Gardening" &mdash; One main idea desirable &mdash;
+Pictorial treatment &mdash; Training in fine art &mdash; Adapting from
+Nature &mdash; Study of colour &mdash; Ignorant use of the word
+"artistic."</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XVI</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">THE FLOWER-BORDER AND PERGOLA</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_200">200</a>-215</span></p>
+
+<p>The flower-border &mdash; The wall and its occupants &mdash; <i>Choisya
+ternata</i> &mdash; Nandina &mdash; Canon Ellacombe's garden &mdash; Treatment of
+colour-masses &mdash; Arrangement of plants in the border &mdash; Dahlias
+and Cannas &mdash; Covering bare places &mdash; The Pergola &mdash; How made
+&mdash; Suitable climbers &mdash; Arbours of trained Planes &mdash; Garden
+houses.</p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XVII</h3><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xi" name="Page_xi"></a>[xi]</div>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">THE PRIMROSE GARDEN</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_216">216</a>-220</span></p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XVIII</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">COLOURS OF FLOWERS</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_221">221</a>-228</span></p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XIX</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_229">229</a>-240</span></p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XX</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_241">241</a>-248</span></p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXI</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">NOVELTY AND VARIETY</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_249">249</a>-255</span></p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXII</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">WEEDS AND PESTS</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_256">256</a>-262</span></p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIII</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">THE BEDDING FASHION AND ITS INFLUENCE</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_263">263</a>-270</span></p></div>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER XXIV</h3>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">MASTERS AND MEN</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_271">271</a>-279</span></p></div>
+
+<div class="toc"><p><span class="alignleft">INDEX</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_280">280</a></span></p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiii" name="Page_xiii"></a>[xiii]</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Frontispiece</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#frontispiece"><i>face title</i></a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">A Wild Juniper</span><span class="malign"><i>face page</i></span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_018">19</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Scotch Firs thrown on to Frozen Water by Snowstorm</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_027">27</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Old Juniper, showing former Injuries</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_028">29</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Juniper, lately wrecked by Snowstorm</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_028">29</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Garden Door-way wreathed with Clematis Graveolens</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_039">39</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Cottage Porch wreathed with the Double White Rose</span> (<i>R. alba</i>)<span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image39">39</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Wild Hop, entwining Wormwood and Cow-Parsnip</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_043">43</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Daffodils in the Copse</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_048">48</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Magnolia stellata</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_050">50</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Daffodils among Junipers where Garden joins Copse</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image51">51</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Tiarella Cordifolia</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_053">53</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Hollyhock, Pink Beauty</span> (<i>See page <a href="#image105">105</a></i>)<span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_053">53</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Tulipa Retroflexa</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_055">55</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Late single Tulips, Breeders and Bybl&oelig;men</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image55">55</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Trillium in the Wild Garden</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_061">61</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xiv" name="Page_xiv"></a>[xiv]</span><span class="smcap">Rhododendrons where the Copse and Garden meet</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image65">65</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Grass Walks through the Copse</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_066">66</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Rhododendrons at the Edge of the Copse</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_069">68</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">South side of door, with Clematis Montana and Choisya</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_072">72</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">North side of the same door, with Clematis Montana
+<br />and Guelder-Rose</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image72">72</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Free Cluster-Rose as standard in a Cottage Garden</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_079">77</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Double White Scotch Briar</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_081">81</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Part of a Bush of Rosa Polyantha</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_082">82</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Garland-Rose showing Natural Way of Growth</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image82">82</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Lilac Marie Legraye</span> (<i>See page <a href="#Page_023">23</a></i>)<span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_084">84</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Flowering Elder and Path from Garden to Copse</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image84">84</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The Giant Lily</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image96">96</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Cistus florentinus</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The Great Asphodel</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Lavender Hedge and Steps to the Loft</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Hollyhock, Pink Beauty</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image105">105</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Solomon's Seal in Spring, in the upper part of the Fern-walk</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The Fern-walk in August</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image107">107</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Jack</span> (<i>See page <a href="#Page_079">79</a></i>)<span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_118">117</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The 'Old Wall'</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_118">117</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Erinus Alpinus, clothing Steps in Rock-Wall</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Borders of Michaelmas Daisies</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_127">126</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xv" name="Page_xv"></a>[xv]</span><span class="smcap">Pens for Storing Dead Leaves</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Careful Wild-Gardening&mdash;White Foxgloves at the Edge
+<br />of the Fir Wood</span> (<i>See page <a href="#Page_270">270</a></i>)<span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image150">150</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Holly Stems in an Old Hedge-Row</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Wild Junipers</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_156">154</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Wild Junipers</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_157">156</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">The Woodman</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_160">158</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Grubbing a Tree-stump</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_161">161</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Felling and Grubbing Tools</span> (<i>See page <a href="#Page_150">150</a></i>)<span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image161">161</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Hoop-making in the Woods</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Hoop-shaving</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Shed-roof, thatched with Hoop-chip</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Garland-Rose wreathing the end of a Terrace Wall </span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_179">178</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">A Roadside Cottage Garden</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">A Flower-border in June</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_201">200</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Pathway across the South Border in July</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_204">202</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Outside View of the Brick Pergola shown at Page <a href="#image214">214</a>,
+<br />after Six Years' Growth</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image202">202</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">End of Flower-border and Entrance of Pergola</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_211">210</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">South Border Door and Yuccas in August</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image210">210</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Stone-Built Pergola with Wrought Oak Beams</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Pergola with Brick Piers and Beams of Rough Oak</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image214">214</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Evening in the Primrose Garden</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xvi" name="Page_xvi"></a>[xvi]</span><span class="smcap">Tall Snapdragons Growing in a Dry Wall</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Mulleins Growing in the Face of Dry Wall</span>
+<br />(<i>See "Old Wall," page <a href="#Page_118">116</a></i>)<span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Geraniums in Neapolitan Pots</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Space in Step and Tank-garden for Lilies, Cannas, and Geraniums</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_269">268</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Hydrangeas in Tubs, in a part of the same Garden</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#image268">268</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Mullein (Verbascum phlomoides) at the Edge of the Fir Wood</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">A Grass Path in the Copse</span><span class="m2align">"</span><span class="ralign"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>WOOD AND GARDEN</h2><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_001" name="Page_001"></a>[001]</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h4>INTRODUCTORY</h4>
+
+
+<p><br />There are already many and excellent books about gardening; but the love
+of a garden, already so deeply implanted in the English heart, is so
+rapidly growing, that no excuse is needed for putting forth another.</p>
+
+<p>I lay no claim either to literary ability, or to botanical knowledge, or
+even to knowing the best practical methods of cultivation; but I have
+lived among outdoor flowers for many years, and have not spared myself
+in the way of actual labour, and have come to be on closely intimate and
+friendly terms with a great many growing things, and have acquired
+certain instincts which, though not clearly defined, are of the nature
+of useful knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>But the lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others,
+is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives. I
+rejoice when I see any one, and especially children, inquiring about
+flowers, and wanting gardens of their own, and carefully working
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_002" name="Page_002"></a>[002]</span>in them. For the love of gardening is a seed that once sown
+never dies, but always grows and grows to an enduring and
+ever-increasing source of happiness.</p>
+
+<p>If in the following chapters I have laid special stress upon gardening
+for beautiful effect, it is because it is the way of gardening that I
+love best, and understand most of, and that seems to me capable of
+giving the greatest amount of pleasure. I am strongly for treating
+garden and wooded ground in a pictorial way, mainly with large effects,
+and in the second place with lesser beautiful incidents, and for so
+arranging plants and trees and grassy spaces that they look happy and at
+home, and make no parade of conscious effort. I try for beauty and
+harmony everywhere, and especially for harmony of colour. A garden so
+treated gives the delightful feeling of repose, and refreshment, and
+purest enjoyment of beauty, that seems to my understanding to be the
+best fulfilment of its purpose; while to the diligent worker its
+happiness is like the offering of a constant hymn of praise. For I hold
+that the best purpose of a garden is to give delight and to give
+refreshment of mind, to soothe, to refine, and to lift up the heart in a
+spirit of praise and thankfulness. It is certain that those who practise
+gardening in the best ways find it to be so.</p>
+
+<p>But the scope of practical gardening covers a range of horticultural
+practice wide enough to give play to every variety of human taste. Some
+find their greatest pleasure in collecting as large a number as possible
+of <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_003" name="Page_003"></a>[003]</span>all sorts of plants from all sources, others in collecting
+them themselves in their foreign homes, others in making rock-gardens,
+or ferneries, or peat-gardens, or bog-gardens, or gardens for conifers
+or for flowering shrubs, or special gardens of plants and trees with
+variegated or coloured leaves, or in the cultivation of some particular
+race or family of plants. Others may best like wide lawns with large
+trees, or wild gardening, or a quite formal garden, with trim hedge and
+walk, and terrace, and brilliant parterre, or a combination of several
+ways of gardening. And all are right and reasonable and enjoyable to
+their owners, and in some way or degree helpful to others.</p>
+
+<p>The way that seems to me most desirable is again different, and I have
+made an attempt to describe it in some of its aspects. But I have
+learned much, and am always learning, from other people's gardens, and
+the lesson I have learned most thoroughly is, never to say "I
+know"&mdash;there is so infinitely much to learn, and the conditions of
+different gardens vary so greatly, even when soil and situation appear
+to be alike and they are in the same district. Nature is such a subtle
+chemist that one never knows what she is about, or what surprises she
+may have in store for us.</p>
+
+<p>Often one sees in the gardening papers discussions about the treatment
+of some particular plant. One man writes to say it can only be done one
+way, another to say it can only be done quite some other <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_004" name="Page_004"></a>[004]</span>way,
+and the discussion waxes hot and almost angry, and the puzzled reader,
+perhaps as yet young in gardening, cannot tell what to make of it. And
+yet the two writers are both able gardeners, and both absolutely
+trustworthy, only they should have said, "In my experience <i>in this
+place</i> such a plant can only be done in such a way." Even plants of the
+same family will not do equally well in the same garden. Every practical
+gardener knows this in the case of strawberries and potatoes; he has to
+find out which kinds will do in his garden; the experience of his friend
+in the next county is probably of no use whatever.</p>
+
+<p>I have learnt much from the little cottage gardens that help to make our
+English waysides the prettiest in the temperate world. One can hardly go
+into the smallest cottage garden without learning or observing something
+new. It may be some two plants growing beautifully together by some
+happy chance, or a pretty mixed tangle of creepers, or something that
+one always thought must have a south wall doing better on an east one.
+But eye and brain must be alert to receive the impression and studious
+to store it, to add to the hoard of experience. And it is important to
+train oneself to have a good flower-eye; to be able to see at a glance
+what flowers are good and which are unworthy, and why, and to keep an
+open mind about it; not to be swayed by the petty tyrannies of the
+"florist" or show judge; for, though some part of his judgment may be
+sound, he is himself a slave to rules, and must <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_005" name="Page_005"></a>[005]</span>go by points
+which are defined arbitrarily and rigidly, and have reference mainly to
+the show-table, leaving out of account, as if unworthy of consideration,
+such matters as gardens and garden beauty, and human delight, and
+sunshine, and varying lights of morning and evening and noonday. But
+many, both nurserymen and private people, devote themselves to growing
+and improving the best classes of hardy flowers, and we can hardly offer
+them too much grateful praise, or do them too much honour. For what
+would our gardens be without the Roses, Pæonies, and Gladiolus of
+France, and the Tulips and Hyacinths of Holland, to say nothing of the
+hosts of good things raised by our home growers, and of the enterprise
+of the great firms whose agents are always searching the world for
+garden treasures?</p>
+
+<p>Let no one be discouraged by the thought of how much there is to learn.
+Looking back upon nearly thirty years of gardening (the earlier part of
+it in groping ignorance with scant means of help), I can remember no
+part of it that was not full of pleasure and encouragement. For the
+first steps are steps into a delightful Unknown, the first successes are
+victories all the happier for being scarcely expected, and with the
+growing knowledge comes the widening outlook, and the comforting sense
+of an ever-increasing gain of critical appreciation. Each new step
+becomes a little surer, and each new grasp a little firmer, till, little
+by little, comes the power of intelligent combination, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_006" name="Page_006"></a>[006]</span>nearest thing we can know to the mighty force of creation.</p>
+
+<p>And a garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful
+watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches
+entire trust. "Paul planteth and Apollos watereth, but God giveth the
+increase." The good gardener knows with absolute certainty that if he
+does his part, if he gives the labour, the love, and every aid that his
+knowledge of his craft, experience of the conditions of his place, and
+exercise of his personal wit can work together to suggest, that so
+surely as he does this diligently and faithfully, so surely will God
+give the increase. Then with the honestly-earned success comes the
+consciousness of encouragement to renewed effort, and, as it were, an
+echo of the gracious words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_007" name="Page_007"></a>[007]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h4>JANUARY</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Beauty of woodland in winter &mdash; The nut-walk &mdash; Thinning the
+overgrowth &mdash; A nut nursery &mdash; <i>Iris stylosa</i> &mdash; Its culture &mdash;
+Its home in Algeria &mdash; Discovery of the white variety &mdash;
+Flowers and branches for indoor decoration.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />A hard frost is upon us. The thermometer registered eighteen degrees
+last night, and though there was only one frosty night next before it,
+the ground is hard frozen. Till now a press of other work has stood in
+the way of preparing protecting stuff for tender shrubs, but now I go up
+into the copse with a man and chopping tools to cut out some of the
+Scotch fir that are beginning to crowd each other.</p>
+
+<p>How endlessly beautiful is woodland in winter! To-day there is a thin
+mist; just enough to make a background of tender blue mystery three
+hundred yards away, and to show any defect in the grouping of near
+trees. No day could be better for deciding which trees are to come down;
+there is not too much at a time within sight; just one good picture-full
+and no more. On a clear day the eye and mind are distracted by seeing
+away into too many planes, and it is <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_008" name="Page_008"></a>[008]</span>much more difficult to
+decide what is desirable in the way of broad treatment of nearer
+objects.</p>
+
+<p>The ground has a warm carpet of pale rusty fern; tree-stem and branch
+and twig show tender colour-harmonies of grey bark and silver-grey
+lichen, only varied by the warm feathery masses of birch spray. Now the
+splendid richness of the common holly is more than ever impressive, with
+its solid masses of full, deep colour, and its wholesome look of perfect
+health and vigour. Sombrely cheerful, if one may use such a mixture of
+terms; sombre by reason of the extreme depth of tone, and yet cheerful
+from the look of glad life, and from the assurance of warm shelter and
+protecting comfort to bird and beast and neighbouring vegetation. The
+picture is made complete by the slender shafts of the silver-barked
+birches, with their half-weeping heads of delicate, warm-coloured spray.
+Has any tree so graceful a way of throwing up its stems as the birch?
+They seem to leap and spring into the air, often leaning and curving
+upward from the very root, sometimes in forms that would be almost
+grotesque were it not for the never-failing rightness of free-swinging
+poise and perfect balance. The tints of the stem give a precious lesson
+in colour. The white of the bark is here silvery-white and there
+milk-white, and sometimes shows the faintest tinge of rosy flush. Where
+the bark has not yet peeled, the stem is clouded and banded with
+delicate grey, and with the silver-green of lichen. For about two feet
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_009" name="Page_009"></a>[009]</span>upward from the ground, in the case of young trees of about
+seven to nine inches diameter, the bark is dark in colour, and lies in
+thick and extremely rugged upright ridges, contrasting strongly with the
+smooth white skin above. Where the two join, the smooth bark is parted
+in upright slashes, through which the dark, rough bark seems to swell
+up, reminding one forcibly of some of the old fifteenth-century German
+costumes, where a dark velvet is arranged to rise in crumpled folds
+through slashings in white satin. In the stems of older birches the
+rough bark rises much higher up the trunk and becomes clothed with
+delicate grey-green lichen.</p>
+
+<p>The nut-walk was planted twelve years ago. There are two rows each side,
+one row four feet behind the other, and the nuts are ten feet apart in
+the rows. They are planted zigzag, those in the back rows showing
+between the front ones. As the two inner rows are thirteen feet apart
+measuring across the path, it leaves a shady border on each side, with
+deeper bays between the nearer trees. Lent Hellebores fill one border
+from end to end; the other is planted with the Corsican and the native
+kinds, so that throughout February and March there is a complete bit of
+garden of one kind of plant in full beauty of flower and foliage.</p>
+
+<p>The nut-trees have grown into such thick clumps that now there must be a
+vigorous thinning. Each stool has from eight to twelve main stems, the
+largest <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_010" name="Page_010"></a>[010]</span>of them nearly two inches thick. Some shoot almost
+upright, but two or three in each stool spread outward, with quite a
+different habit of growth, branching about in an angular fashion. These
+are the oldest and thickest. There are also a number of straight suckers
+one and two years old. Now when I look at some fine old nut alley, with
+the tops arching and meeting overhead, as I hope mine will do in a few
+years, I see that the trees have only a few stems, usually from three to
+five at the most, and I judge that now is the time to thin mine to about
+the right number, so that the strength and growing power may be thrown
+into these, and not allowed to dilute and waste itself in growing extra
+faggoting. The first to be cut away are the old crooked stems. They grow
+nearly horizontally and are all elbows, and often so tightly locked into
+the straighter rods that they have to be chopped to pieces before they
+can be pulled out. When these are gone it is easier to get at the other
+stems, though they are often so close together at the base that it is
+difficult to chop or saw them out without hurting the bark of the ones
+to be left. All the young suckers are cut away. They are of straight,
+clean growth, and we prize them as the best possible sticks for
+Chrysanthemums and potted Lilies.</p>
+
+<p>After this bold thinning, instead of dense thickety bushes we have a few
+strong, well-branched rods to each stool. At first the nut-walk looks
+wofully naked, and for the time its pictorial value is certainly
+lessened; <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_011" name="Page_011"></a>[011]</span>but it has to be done, and when summer side-twigs
+have grown and leafed, it will be fairly well clothed, and meanwhile the
+Hellebores will be the better for the thinner shade.</p>
+
+<p>The nut-catkins are already an inch long, but are tightly closed, and
+there is no sign as yet of the bright crimson little sea-anemones that
+will appear next month and will duly grow into nut-bearing twigs. Round
+the edges of the base of the stools are here and there little branching
+suckers. These are the ones to look out for, to pull off and grow into
+young trees. A firm grasp and a sharp tug brings them up with a fine
+supply of good fibrous root. After two years in the nursery they are
+just right to plant out.</p>
+
+<p>The trees in the nut-walk were grown in this way fourteen years ago,
+from small suckers pulled off plants that came originally from the
+interesting cob-nut nursery at Calcot, near Reading.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget a visit to that nursery some six-and-twenty years
+ago. It was walled all round, and a deep-sounding bell had to be rung
+many times before any one came to open the gate; but at last it was
+opened by a fine, strongly-built, sunburnt woman of the type of the good
+working farmer's wife, that I remember as a child. She was the
+forewoman, who worked the nursery with surprisingly few hands&mdash;only
+three men, if I remember rightly&mdash;but she looked as if she could do the
+work of "all two men" herself. One of the specialties of the place was a
+fine breed of mastiffs; <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_012" name="Page_012"></a>[012]</span>another was an old Black Hamburg vine,
+that rambled and clambered in and out of some very old greenhouses, and
+was wonderfully productive. There were alleys of nuts in all directions,
+and large spreading patches of palest yellow Daffodils&mdash;the double
+<i>Narcissus cernuus</i>, now so scarce and difficult to grow. Had I then
+known how precious a thing was there in fair abundance, I should not
+have been contented with the modest dozen that I asked for. It was a
+most pleasant garden to wander in, especially with the old Mr. Webb who
+presently appeared. He was dressed in black clothes of an old-looking
+cut&mdash;a Quaker, I believe. Never shall I forget an apple-tart he invited
+me to try as a proof of the merit of the "Wellington" apple. It was not
+only good, but beautiful; the cooked apple looking rosy and transparent,
+and most inviting. He told me he was an ardent preacher of total
+abstinence, and took me to a grassy, shady place among the nuts, where
+there was an upright stone slab, like a tombstone, with the inscription:</p>
+
+<p class="center">TO ALCOHOL.<br /></p>
+
+<p>He had dug a grave, and poured into it a quantity of wine and beer and
+spirits, and placed the stone as a memorial of his abhorrence of drink.
+The whole thing remains in my mind like a picture&mdash;the shady groves of
+old nuts, in tenderest early leaf, the pale Daffodils, the mighty
+chained mastiffs with bloodshot eyes and murderous fangs, the brawny,
+wholesome forewoman, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_013" name="Page_013"></a>[013]</span>and the trim old gentleman in black. It
+was the only nursery I ever saw where one would expect to see fairies on
+a summer's night.</p>
+
+<p>I never tire of admiring and praising <i>Iris stylosa</i>, which has proved
+itself such a good plant for English gardens; at any rate, for those in
+our southern counties. Lovely in form and colour, sweetly-scented and
+with admirable foliage, it has in addition to these merits the unusual
+one of a blooming season of six months' duration. The first flowers come
+with the earliest days of November, and its season ends with a rush of
+bloom in the first half of April. Then is the time to take up old tufts
+and part them, and plant afresh; the old roots will have dried up into
+brown wires, and the new will be pushing. It thrives in rather poor
+soil, and seems to bloom all the better for having its root-run invaded
+by some stronger plant. When I first planted a quantity I had brought
+from its native place, I made the mistake of putting it in a
+well-prepared border. At first I was delighted to see how well it
+flourished, but as it gave me only thick masses of leaves a yard long,
+and no flowers, it was clear that it wanted to be less well fed. After
+changing it to poor soil, at the foot of a sunny wall close to a strong
+clump of Alströmeria, I was rewarded with a good crop of flowers; and
+the more the Alströmeria grew into it on one side and <i>Plumbago
+Larpenti</i> on the other, the more freely the brave little Iris flowered.
+The flower has no true stem; what serves as a stem, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_014" name="Page_014"></a>[014]</span>sometimes
+a foot long, is the elongated style, so that the seed-pod has to be
+looked for deep down at the base of the tufts of leaves, and almost
+under ground. The specific name, <i>stylosa</i>, is so clearly descriptive,
+that one regrets that the longer, and certainly uglier, <i>unguicularis</i>
+should be preferred by botanists.</p>
+
+<p>What a delight it was to see it for the first time in its home in the
+hilly wastes, a mile or two inland from the town of Algiers! Another
+lovely blue Iris was there too, <i>I. alata</i> or <i>scorpioides</i>, growing
+under exactly the same conditions; but this is a plant unwilling to be
+acclimatised in England. What a paradise it was for flower-rambles,
+among the giant Fennels and the tiny orange Marigolds, and the immense
+bulbs of <i>Scilla maritima</i> standing almost out of the ground, and the
+many lovely Bee-orchises and the fairy-like <i>Narcissus serotinus</i>, and
+the groves of Prickly Pear wreathed and festooned with the graceful
+tufts of bell-shaped flower and polished leaves of <i>Clematis cirrhosa</i>!</p>
+
+<p>It was in the days when there were only a few English residents, but
+among them was the Rev. Edwyn Arkwright, who by his happy discovery of a
+white-flowered <i>Iris stylosa</i>, the only one that has been found wild,
+has enriched our gardens with a most lovely variety of this excellent
+plant. I am glad to be able to quote his own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The finding of the white <i>Iris stylosa</i> belongs to the happy old times
+twenty-five years ago, when there <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_015" name="Page_015"></a>[015]</span>were no social duties and no
+vineyards<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> in Algiers. My two sisters and I bought three horses, and
+rode wild every day in the scrub of Myrtle, Cistus, Dwarf Oak, &amp;c. It
+was about five miles from the town, on what is called the 'Sahel,' that
+the one plant grew that I was told botanists knew ought to exist, but
+with all their searching had never found. I am thankful that I dug it up
+instead of picking it, only knowing that it was a pretty flower. Then
+after a year or two Durando saw it, and took off his hat to it, and told
+me what a treasure it was, and proceeded to send off little bits to his
+friends; and among them all, Ware of Tottenham managed to be beforehand,
+and took a first-class certificate for it. It is odd that there should
+never have been another plant found, for there never was such a
+free-growing and multiplying plant. My sister in Herefordshire has had
+over fifty blooms this winter; but we count it by thousands, and it is
+<i>the</i> feature in all decorations in every English house in Algiers."</p>
+
+<p>Throughout January, and indeed from the middle of December, is the time
+when outdoor flowers for cutting and house decoration are most scarce;
+and yet there are Christmas Roses and yellow Jasmine and Laurustinus,
+and in all open weather <i>Iris stylosa</i> and Czar Violets. A very few
+flowers can be made to look well if cleverly arranged with plenty of
+good foliage; and even when a hard and long frost spoils the few
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_016" name="Page_016"></a>[016]</span>blooms that would otherwise be available, leafy branches alone
+are beautiful in rooms. But, as in all matters that have to do with
+decoration, everything depends on a right choice of material and the
+exercise of taste in disposing it. Red-tinted Berberis always looks well
+alone, if three or four branches are boldly cut from two to three feet
+long. Branches of the spotted Aucuba do very well by themselves, and are
+specially beautiful in blue china; the larger the leaves and the bolder
+the markings, the better. Where there is an old Exmouth Magnolia that
+can spare some small branches, nothing makes a nobler room-ornament. The
+long arching sprays of Alexandrian Laurel do well with green or
+variegated Box, and will live in a room for several weeks. Among useful
+winter leaves of smaller growth, those of <i>Epimedium pinnatum</i> have a
+fine red colour and delicate veining, and I find them very useful for
+grouping with greenhouse flowers of delicate texture. <i>Gaultheria
+Shallon</i> is at its best in winter, and gives valuable branches and twigs
+for cutting; and much to be prized are sprays of the Japan Privet, with
+its tough, highly-polished leaves, so much like those of the orange.
+There is a variegated Eurybia, small branches of which are excellent;
+and always useful are the gold and silver Hollies.</p>
+
+<p>There is a little plant, <i>Ophiopogon spicatum</i>, that I grow in rather
+large quantity for winter cutting, the leaves being at their best in the
+winter months. They are sword-shaped and of a lively green colour, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_017" name="Page_017"></a>[017]</span>are arranged in flat sheaves after the manner of a flag-Iris. I
+pull up a whole plant at a time&mdash;a two-year-old plant is a spreading
+tuft of the little sheaves&mdash;and wash it and cut away the groups of
+leaves just at the root, so that they are held together by the
+root-stock. They last long in water, and are beautiful with Roman
+Hyacinths or Freesias or <i>Iris stylosa</i> and many other flowers. The
+leaves of Megaseas, especially those of the <i>cordifolia</i> section, colour
+grandly in winter, and look fine in a large bowl with the largest blooms
+of Christmas Roses, or with forced Hyacinths. Much useful material can
+be found among Ivies, both of the wild and garden kinds. When they are
+well established they generally throw out rather woody front shoots;
+these are the ones to look out for, as they stand out with a certain
+degree of stiffness that makes them easier to arrange than weaker
+trailing pieces.</p>
+
+<p>I do not much care for dried flowers&mdash;the bulrush and pampas-grass
+decoration has been so much overdone, that it has become wearisome&mdash;but
+I make an exception in favour of the flower of <i>Eulalia japonica</i>, and
+always give it a place. It does not come to its full beauty out of
+doors; it only finishes its growth late in October, and therefore does
+not have time to dry and expand. I grew it for many years before finding
+out that the closed and rather draggled-looking heads would open
+perfectly in a warm room. The uppermost leaf often confines the flower,
+and should be taken off <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_018" name="Page_018"></a>[018]</span>to release it; the flower does not seem
+to mature quite enough to come free of itself. Bold masses of
+Helichrysum certainly give some brightness to a room during the darkest
+weeks of winter, though the brightest yellow is the only one I much care
+to have; there is a look of faded tinsel about the other colourings. I
+much prize large bunches of the native Iris berries, and grow it largely
+for winter room-ornament.</p>
+
+<p>Among the many valuable suggestions in Mrs. Earle's delightful book,
+"Pot-pourri from a Surrey Garden," is the use indoors of the smaller
+coloured gourds. As used by her they give a bright and cheerful look to
+a room that even flowers can not surpass.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 262px;">
+<img src="images/19_a.jpg" width="262" height="400" alt="A Wild Juniper." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A Wild Juniper.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_019" name="Page_019"></a>[019]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h4>FEBRUARY</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Distant promise of summer &mdash; Ivy-berries &mdash; Coloured leaves &mdash;
+<i>Berberis Aquifolium</i> &mdash; Its many merits &mdash; Thinning and
+pruning shrubs &mdash; Lilacs &mdash; Removing suckers &mdash; Training
+<i>Clematis flammula</i> &mdash; Forms of trees &mdash; Juniper, a neglected
+native evergreen &mdash; Effect of snow &mdash; Power of recovery &mdash;
+Beauty of colour &mdash; Moss-grown stems.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the
+yet distant, but surely coming, summer. Perhaps it is a warm, mossy
+scent that greets one when passing along the southern side of a
+hedge-bank; or it may be in some woodland opening, where the sun has
+coaxed out the pungent smell of the trailing ground Ivy, whose blue
+flowers will soon appear; but the day always comes, and with it the glad
+certainty that summer is nearing, and that the good things promised will
+never fail.</p>
+
+<p>How strangely little of positive green colour is to be seen in copse and
+woodland. Only the moss is really green. The next greenest thing is the
+northern sides of the trunks of beech and oak. Walking southward they
+are all green, but looking back they are silver-grey. The undergrowth is
+of brambles and sparse <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_020" name="Page_020"></a>[020]</span>fronds of withered bracken; the bracken
+less beaten down than usual, for the winter has been without snow; only
+where the soil is deeper, and the fern has grown more tall and rank, it
+has fallen into thick, almost felted masses, and the stalks all lying
+one way make the heaps look like lumps of fallen thatch. The bramble
+leaves&mdash;last year's leaves, which are held all the winter&mdash;are of a
+dark, blackish-bronze colour, or nearly red where they have seen the
+sun. Age seems to give them a sort of hard surface and enough of a
+polish to reflect the sky; the young leaves that will come next month
+are almost woolly at first. Grassy tufts show only bleached bents, so
+tightly matted that one wonders how the delicate young blades will be
+able to spear through. Ivy-berries, hanging in thick clusters, are still
+in beauty; they are so heavy that they weigh down the branches. There is
+a peculiar beauty in the form and veining of the plain-shaped leaves
+belonging to the mature or flowering state that the plant reaches when
+it can no longer climb, whether on a wall six feet high or on the
+battlements of a castle. Cuttings grown from such portions retain this
+habit, and form densely-flowering bushes of compact shape.</p>
+
+<p>Beautiful colouring is now to be seen in many of the plants whose leaves
+do not die down in winter. Foremost amongst these is the Foam-flower
+(<i>Tiarella cordifolia</i>). Its leaves, now lying on the ground, show
+bright colouring, inclining to scarlet, crimson, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_021" name="Page_021"></a>[021]</span>and orange.
+<i>Tellima</i>, its near relation, is also well coloured. <i>Galax aphylla</i>,
+with its polished leaves of hard texture, and stalks almost as stiff as
+wire, is nearly as bright; and many of the Megaseas are of a fine bronze
+red, the ones that colour best being the varieties of the well-known <i>M.
+crassifolia</i> and <i>M. cordifolia</i>. Among shrubs, some of the nearly
+allied genera, popularly classed under the name Andromeda, are beautiful
+in reddish colour passing into green, in some of the leaves by tender
+gradation, and in others by bold splashing. <i>Berberis Aquifolium</i> begins
+to colour after the first frosts; though some plants remain green, the
+greater number take on some rich tinting of red or purple, and
+occasionally in poor soil and in full sun a bright red that may almost
+be called scarlet.</p>
+
+<p>What a precious thing this fine old Berberis is! What should we do in
+winter without its vigorous masses of grand foliage in garden and
+shrubbery, to say nothing of its use indoors? Frequent as it is in
+gardens, it is seldom used as well or thoughtfully as it deserves. There
+are many places where, between garden and wood, a well-considered
+planting of Berberis, combined with two or three other things of larger
+stature, such as the fruiting Barberry, and Whitethorn and Holly, would
+make a very enjoyable piece of shrub wild-gardening. When one reflects
+that <i>Berberis Aquifolium</i> is individually one of the handsomest of
+small shrubs, that it is at its very best in mid-winter, that every leaf
+is a marvel of beautiful <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_022" name="Page_022"></a>[022]</span>drawing and construction, and that
+its ruddy winter colouring is a joy to see, enhanced as it is by the
+glistening brightness of the leaf-surface; and further, when one
+remembers that in spring the whole picture changes&mdash;that the polished
+leaves are green again, and the bushes are full of tufted masses of
+brightest yellow bloom, and fuller of bee-music than any other plant
+then in flower; and that even then it has another season of beauty yet
+to come, when in the days of middle summer it is heavily loaded with the
+thick-clustered masses of berries, covered with a brighter and bluer
+bloom than almost any other fruit can show,&mdash;when one thinks of all this
+brought together in one plant, it seems but right that we should spare
+no pains to use it well. It is the only hardy shrub I can think of that
+is in one or other of its varied forms of beauty throughout the year. It
+is never leafless or untidy; it never looks mangy like an Ilex in April,
+or moulting like a Holly in May, or patchy and unfinished like Yew and
+Box and many other evergreens when their young leafy shoots are
+sprouting.</p>
+
+<p>We have been thinning the shrubs in one of the rather large clumps next
+to the lawn, taking the older wood in each clump right out from the
+bottom and letting more light and air into the middle. Weigelas grow
+fast and very thick. Quite two-thirds have been cut out of each bush of
+Weigela, Philadelphus, and Ribes, and a good bit out of Ceanothus,
+"Gloire de Versailles," my favourite of its kind, and all the oldest
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_023" name="Page_023"></a>[023]</span>wood from <i>Viburnum plicatus</i>. The stuff cut out makes quite a
+respectable lot of faggoting. How extremely dense and hard is the wood
+of Philadelphus! as close-grained as Box, and almost as hard as the
+bright yellow wood of Berberis.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the Lilacs have a good many suckers from the root, as well as on
+the lower part of the stem. These must all come away, and then the trees
+will have a good dressing of manure. They are greedy feeders, and want
+it badly in our light soil, and surely no flowering shrub more truly
+deserves it. The Lilacs I have are some of the beautiful kinds raised in
+France, for which we can never be thankful enough to our good neighbours
+across the Channel. The white variety, "Marie Legraye," always remains
+my favourite. Some are larger and whiter, and have the trusses more
+evenly and closely filled, but this beautiful Marie fills one with a
+satisfying conviction as of something that is just right, that has
+arrived at the point of just the best and most lovable kind of beauty,
+and has been wisely content to stay there, not attempting to pass beyond
+and excel itself. Its beauty is modest and reserved, and temperate and
+full of refinement. The colour has a deliciously-tender warmth of white,
+and as the truss is not over-full, there is room for a delicate play of
+warm half-light within its recesses. Among the many beautiful coloured
+Lilacs, I am fond of Lucie Baltet and Princesse Marie. There may be
+better flowers <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_024" name="Page_024"></a>[024]</span>from the ordinary florist point of view, but
+these have the charm that is a good garden flower's most precious
+quality. I do not like the cold, heavy-coloured ones of the bluish-slaty
+kinds. No shrub is hardier than the Lilac; I believe they flourish even
+within the Arctic Circle. It is very nearly allied to Privet; so nearly,
+that the oval-leaved Privet is commonly used as a stock. Standard trees
+flower much better than bushes; in this form all the strength seems to
+go directly to the flowering boughs. No shrub is more persistent in
+throwing up suckers from the root and from the lower part of the stem,
+but in bush trees as well as in standards they should be carefully
+removed every year. In the case of bushes, three or four main stems will
+be enough to leave. When taking away suckers of any kind whatever, it is
+much better to tear them out than to cut them off. A cut, however close,
+leaves a base from which they may always spring again, but if pulled or
+wrenched out they bring away with them the swollen base that, if left
+in, would be a likely source of future trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Before the end of February we must be sure to prune and train any plants
+there may be of <i>Clematis flammula</i>. Its growth is so rapid when once it
+begins, that if it is overlooked it soon grows into a tangled mass of
+succulent weak young stuff, quite unmanageable two months hence, when it
+will be hanging about in helpless masses, dead and living together. If
+it <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_025" name="Page_025"></a>[025]</span>is left till then, one can only engirdle the whole thing
+with a soft tarred rope and sling it up somehow or anyhow. But if taken
+now, when the young growths are just showing at the joints, the last
+year's mass can be untangled, the dead and the over-much cut out, and
+the best pieces trained in. In gardening, the interests of the moment
+are so engrossing that one is often tempted to forget the future; but it
+is well to remember that this lovely and tenderly-scented Clematis will
+be one of the chief beauties of September, and well deserves a little
+timely care.</p>
+
+<p>In summer-time one never really knows how beautiful are the forms of the
+deciduous trees. It is only in winter, when they are bare of leaves,
+that one can fully enjoy their splendid structure and design, their
+admirable qualities of duly apportioned strength and grace of poise, and
+the way the spread of the many-branched head has its equivalent in the
+wide-reaching ground-grasp of the root. And it is interesting to see
+how, in the many different kinds of tree, the same laws are always in
+force, and the same results occur, and yet by the employment of what
+varied means. For nothing in the growth of trees can be much more unlike
+than the habit of the oak and that of the weeping willow, though the
+unlikeness only comes from the different adjustment of the same sources
+of power and the same weights, just as in the movement of wind-blown
+leaves some flutter and some undulate, while others turn over and back
+again. Old apple-trees are specially noticeable <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_026" name="Page_026"></a>[026]</span>for their
+beauty in winter, when their extremely graceful shape, less visible when
+in loveliness of spring bloom or in rich bounty of autumn fruit, is seen
+to fullest advantage.</p>
+
+<p>Few in number are our native evergreens, and for that reason all the
+more precious. One of them, the common Juniper, is one of the best of
+shrubs either for garden or wild ground, and yet, strangely enough, it
+is so little appreciated that it is scarcely to be had in nurseries.
+Chinese Junipers, North American Junipers, Junipers from Spain and
+Greece, from Nepaul and Siberia, may be had, but the best Juniper of all
+is very rarely grown. Were it a common tree one could see a sort of
+reason (to some minds) for overlooking it, but though it is fairly
+abundant on a few hill-sides in the southern counties, it is by no means
+widely distributed throughout the country. Even this reason would not be
+consistent with common practice, for the Holly is abundant throughout
+England, and yet is to be had by the thousand in every nursery. Be the
+reason what it may, the common Juniper is one of the most desirable of
+evergreens, and is most undeservedly neglected. Even our botanists fail
+to do it justice, for Bentham describes it as a low shrub growing two
+feet, three feet, or four feet high. I quote from memory only; these may
+not be the words, but this is the sense of his description. He had
+evidently seen it on the chalk downs only, where such a portrait of it
+is exactly right. But in our sheltered uplands, in <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_027" name="Page_027"></a>[027]</span>sandy
+soil, it is a small tree of noble aspect, twelve to twenty-eight feet
+high. In form it is extremely variable, for sometimes it shoots up on a
+single stem and looks like an Italian Cypress or like the upright
+Chinese Juniper, while at other times it will have two or more tall
+spires and a dense surrounding mass of lower growth, while in other
+cases it will be like a quantity of young trees growing close together,
+and yet the trees in all these varied forms may be nearly of an age.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 269px;">
+<img src="images/27_a.jpg" width="269" height="400" alt="Scotch Firs Thrown on to Frozen Water by Snowstorm." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Scotch Firs Thrown on to Frozen Water by Snowstorm.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The action of snow is the reason of this unlikeness of habit. If, when
+young, the tree happens to have one main stem strong enough to shoot up
+alone, and if at the same time there come a sequence of winters without
+much snow, there will be the tall, straight, cypress-like tree. But if,
+as is more commonly the case, the growth is divided into a number of
+stems of nearly equal size, sooner or later they are sure to be laid
+down by snow. Such a winter storm as that of the end of December 1886
+was especially disastrous to Junipers. Snow came on early in the evening
+in this district, when the thermometer was barely at freezing point and
+there was no wind. It hung on the trees in clogging masses, with a
+lowering temperature that was soon below freezing. The snow still
+falling loaded them more and more; then came the fatal wind, and all
+through that night we heard the breaking trees. When morning came there
+were eighteen inches of snow on the ground, and all the trees that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_028" name="Page_028"></a>[028]</span>could be seen, mostly Scotch fir, seemed to be completely
+wrecked. Some were entirely stripped of branches, and stood up bare,
+like scaffold-poles. Until the snow was gone or half gone, no idea could
+be formed of the amount of damage done to shrubs; all were borne down
+and buried under the white rounded masses. A great Holly on the edge of
+the lawn, nearly thirty feet high and as much in spread, whose head in
+summer is crowned with a great tangle of Honeysuckle, had that crowned
+head lying on the ground weighted down by the frozen mass. But when the
+snow was gone and all the damage could be seen, the Junipers looked
+worse than anything. What had lately been shapely groups were lying
+perfectly flat, the bare-stemmed, leafless portions of the inner part of
+the group showing, and looking like a faggot of dry brushwood, that,
+having been stood upright, had burst its band and fallen apart in all
+directions. Some, whose stems had weathered many snowy winters, now had
+them broken short off half-way up; while others escaped with bare life,
+but with the thick, strong stem broken down, the heavy head lying on the
+ground, and the stem wrenched open at the break, like a half-untwisted
+rope. The great wild Junipers were the pride of our stretch of heathy
+waste just beyond the garden, and the scene of desolation was truly
+piteous, for though many of them already bore the marks of former
+accidents, never within our memory had there been such complete and
+comprehensive destruction.</p>
+
+<div class="floatleft" style="width: 261px">
+<img src="images/29left_a.jpg" width="261" height="350" alt="Old Juniper, showing former Injuries." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Old Juniper, showing former Injuries.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="floatright" style="width: 261px">
+<img src="images/29right_a.jpg" width="261" height="350" alt="Juniper, lately wrecked by Snowstorm." title=""/>
+<span class="caption">Juniper, lately wrecked by Snowstorm.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="nofloat"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_029" name="Page_029"></a>[029]</span>But now, ten years later, so great is their power of recovery,
+that there are the same Junipers, and, except in the case of those
+actually broken off, looking as well as ever. For those with many stems
+that were laid down flat have risen at the tips, and each tip looks like
+a vigorous young ten-year-old tree. What was formerly a massive,
+bushy-shaped Juniper, some twelve feet to fifteen feet high, now covers
+a space thirty feet across, and looks like a thick group of
+closely-planted, healthy young ones. The half broken-down trees have
+also risen at the tips, and are full of renewed vigour. Indeed, this
+breaking down and splitting open seems to give them a new energy, for
+individual trees that I have known well, and observed to look old and
+over-worn, and to all appearance on the downward road of life, after
+being broken and laid down by snow, have some years later, shot up again
+with every evidence of vigorous young life. It would be more easily
+accounted for if the branch rooted where it touched the ground, as so
+many trees and bushes will do; but as far as I have been able to
+observe, the Juniper does not "layer" itself. I have often thought I had
+found a fine young one fit for transplanting, but on clearing away the
+moss and fern at the supposed root have found that it was only the tip
+of a laid-down branch of a tree perhaps twelve feet away. In the case of
+one of our trees, among a group of laid-down and grown-up branches, one
+old central trunk has survived. It is now so thick and strong, and has
+so <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_030" name="Page_030"></a>[030]</span>little top, that it will be likely to stand till it falls
+from sheer old age. Close to it is another, whose main stem was broken
+down about five feet from the ground; now, what was the head rests on
+the earth nine feet away, and a circle of its outspread branches has
+become a wholesome group of young upright growths, while at the place
+where the stem broke, the half-opened wrench still shows as clearly as
+on the day it was done.</p>
+
+<p>Among the many merits of the Juniper, its tenderly mysterious beauty of
+colouring is by no means the least; a colouring as delicately subtle in
+its own way as that of cloud or mist, or haze in warm, wet woodland. It
+has very little of positive green; a suspicion of warm colour in the
+shadowy hollows, and a blue-grey bloom of the tenderest quality
+imaginable on the outer masses of foliage. Each tiny, blade-like leaf
+has a band of dead, palest bluish-green colour on the upper surface,
+edged with a narrow line of dark green slightly polished; the back of
+the leaf is of the same full, rather dark green, with slight polish; it
+looks as if the green back had been brought up over the edge of the leaf
+to make the dark edging on the upper surface. The stems of the twigs are
+of a warm, almost foxy colour, becoming darker and redder in the
+branches. The tips of the twigs curl over or hang out on all sides
+towards the light, and the "set" of the individual twigs is full of
+variety. This arrangement of mixed colouring and texture, and infinitely
+various position of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_031" name="Page_031"></a>[031]</span>spiny little leaves, allows the eye to
+penetrate unconsciously a little way into the mass, so that one sees as
+much tender shadow as actual leaf-surface, and this is probably the
+cause of the wonderfully delicate and, so to speak, intangible quality
+of colouring. Then, again, where there is a hollow place in a bush, or
+group, showing a cluster of half-dead stems, at first one cannot tell
+what the colour is, till with half-shut eyes one becomes aware of a
+dusky and yet luminous purple-grey.</p>
+
+<p>The merits of the Juniper are not yet done with, for throughout the
+winter (the time of growth of moss and lichen) the rugged-barked old
+stems are clothed with loveliest pale-green growths of a silvery
+quality. Standing before it, and trying to put the colour into words,
+one repeats, again and again, pale-green silver&mdash;palest silvery green!
+Where the lichen is old and dead it is greyer; every now and then there
+is a touch of the orange kind, and a little of the branched stag-horn
+pattern so common on the heathy ground. Here and there, as the trunk or
+branch is increasing in girth, the silvery, lichen-clad, rough outer
+bark has parted, and shows the smooth, dark-red inner bark; the outer
+covering still clinging over the opening, and looking like grey ribands
+slightly interlaced. Many another kind of tree-stem is beautiful in its
+winter dress, but it is difficult to find any so full of varied beauty
+and interest as that of the Juniper; it is one of the yearly feasts that
+never fails to delight and satisfy.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_032" name="Page_032"></a>[032]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h4>MARCH</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Flowering bulbs &mdash; Dog-tooth Violet &mdash; Rock-garden &mdash; Variety
+of Rhododendron foliage &mdash; A beautiful old kind &mdash; Suckers on
+grafted plants &mdash; Plants for filling up the beds &mdash; Heaths &mdash;
+Andromedas &mdash; Lady Fern &mdash; <i>Lilium auratum</i> &mdash; Pruning Roses &mdash;
+Training and tying climbing plants &mdash; Climbing and free-growing
+Roses &mdash; The Vine the best wall-covering &mdash; Other climbers &mdash;
+Wild Clematis &mdash; Wild Rose.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />In early March many and lovely are the flowering bulbs, and among them a
+wealth of blue, the more precious that it is the colour least frequent
+among flowers. The blue of <i>Scilla sibirica</i>, like all blues that have
+in them a suspicion of green, has a curiously penetrating quality; the
+blue of <i>Scilla bifolia</i> does not attack the eye so smartly. <i>Chionodoxa
+sardensis</i> is of a full and satisfying colour, that is enhanced by the
+small space of clear white throat. A bed of it shows very little
+variation in colour. <i>Chionodoxa Lucilliæ</i>, on the other hand, varies
+greatly; one may pick out light and dark blue, and light and dark of
+almost lilac colour. The variety <i>C. gigantea</i> is a fine plant. There
+are some pretty kinds of <i>Scilla bifolia</i> that were raised by the Rev.
+J. G. Nelson of Aldborough, among them a tender <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_033" name="Page_033"></a>[033]</span>flesh-colour
+and a good pink. <i>Leucojum vernum</i>, with its clear white flowers and
+polished dark-green leaves, is one of the gems of early March; and,
+flowering at the same time, no flower of the whole year can show a more
+splendid and sumptuous colour than the purple of <i>Iris reticulata</i>.
+Varieties have been raised, some larger, some nearer blue, and some
+reddish purple, but the type remains the best garden flower. <i>Iris
+stylosa</i>, in sheltered nooks open to the sun, when well established,
+gives flower from November till April, the strongest rush of bloom being
+about the third week in March. It is a precious plant in our southern
+counties, delicately scented, of a tender and yet full lilac-blue. The
+long ribbon-like leaves make handsome tufts, and the sheltered place it
+needs in our climate saves the flowers from the injury they receive on
+their native windy Algerian hills, where they are nearly always torn
+into tatters.</p>
+
+<p>What a charm there is about the common Dogtooth Violet; it is pretty
+everywhere, in borders, in the rock-garden, in all sorts of corners. But
+where it looks best with me is in a grassy place strewn with dead
+leaves, under young oaks, where the garden joins the copse. This is a
+part of the pleasure-ground that has been treated with some care, and
+has rewarded thought and labour with some success, so that it looks less
+as if it had been planned than as if it might have come naturally. At
+one point the lawn, trending gently upward, runs by grass paths into a
+rock-garden, planted <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_034" name="Page_034"></a>[034]</span>mainly with dwarf shrubs. Here are
+Andromedas, Pernettyas, Gaultherias, and Alpine Rhododendron, and with
+them three favourites whose crushed leaves give a grateful fragrance,
+Sweet Gale, <i>Ledum palustre</i>, and <i>Rhododendron myrtifolium</i>. The rock
+part is unobtrusive; where the ground rises rather quickly are a couple
+of ridges made of large, long lumps of sandstone, half buried, and so
+laid as to give a look of natural stratification. Hardy Ferns are
+grateful for the coolness of their northern flanks, and Cyclamens are
+happy on the ledges. Beyond and above is the copse, or thin wood of
+young silver Birch and Holly, in summer clothed below with bracken, but
+now bristling with the bluish spears of Daffodils and the buds that will
+soon burst into bloom. The early Pyrenean Daffodil is already out,
+gleaming through the low-toned copse like lamps of pale yellow light.
+Where the rough path enters the birch copse is a cheerfully twinkling
+throng of the Dwarf Daffodil (<i>N. nanus</i>), looking quite at its best on
+its carpet of moss and fine grass and dead leaves. The light wind gives
+it a graceful, dancing movement, with an active spring about the upper
+part of the stalk. Some of the heavier trumpets not far off answer to
+the same wind with only a ponderous, leaden sort of movement.</p>
+
+<p>Farther along the garden joins the wood by a plantation of Rhododendrons
+and broad grassy paths, and farther still by a thicket of the
+free-growing Roses, some forming fountain-like clumps nine paces in
+diameter, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_035" name="Page_035"></a>[035]</span>and then again by masses of flowering shrubs,
+gradating by means of Sweetbriar, Water-elder, Dogwood, Medlar, and
+Thorn from garden to wild wood.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the Rhododendrons, planted nine years ago, have grown to a
+state and size of young maturity, it is interesting to observe how much
+they vary in foliage, and how clearly the leaves show the relative
+degree of relationship to their original parents, the wild mountain
+plants of Asia Minor and the United States. These, being two of the
+hardiest kinds, were the ones first chosen by hybridisers, and to these
+kinds we owe nearly all of the large numbers of beautiful garden
+Rhododendrons now in cultivation. The ones more nearly related to the
+wild <i>R. ponticum</i> have long, narrow, shining dark-green leaves, while
+the varieties that incline more to the American <i>R. catawbiense</i> have
+the leaves twice as broad, and almost rounded at the shoulder where they
+join the stalk; moreover, the surface of the leaf has a different
+texture, less polished, and showing a grain like morocco leather. The
+colour also is a lighter and more yellowish green, and the bush is not
+so densely branched. The leaves of all the kinds are inclined to hang
+down in cold weather, and this habit is more clearly marked in the
+<i>catawbiense</i> varieties.</p>
+
+<p>There is one old kind called <i>Multum maculatum</i>&mdash;I dare say one of the
+earliest hybrids&mdash;for which I have a special liking. It is now despised
+by florists, because the flower is thin in texture and the petal
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_036" name="Page_036"></a>[036]</span>narrow, and the truss not tightly filled. Nevertheless I find it
+quite the most beautiful Rhododendron as a cut flower, perhaps just
+because of these unorthodox qualities. And much as I admire the great
+bouncing beauties that are most justly the pride of their raisers, I
+hold that this most refined and delicate class of beauty equally
+deserves faithful championship. The flowers of this pretty old kind are
+of a delicate milk-white, and the lower petals are generously spotted
+with a rosy-scarlet of the loveliest quality. The leaves are the longest
+and narrowest and darkest green of any kind I know, making the bush
+conspicuously handsome in winter. I have to confess that it is a shy
+bloomer, and that it seems unwilling to flower in a young state, but I
+think of it as a thing so beautiful and desirable as to be worth waiting
+for.</p>
+
+<p>Within March, and before the busier season comes upon us, it is well to
+look out for the suckers that are likely to come on grafted plants. They
+may generally be detected by the typical <i>ponticum</i> leaf, but if the
+foliage of a branch should be suspicious and yet doubtful, if on
+following the shoot down it is seen to come straight from the root and
+to have a redder bark than the rest, it may safely be taken for a
+robber. Of course the invading stock may be easily seen when in flower,
+but the good gardener takes it away before it has this chance of
+reproaching him. A lady visitor last year told me with some pride that
+she had a most wonderful Rhododendron in bloom; all the flower in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_037" name="Page_037"></a>[037]</span>middle was crimson, with a ring of purple-flowered branches
+outside. I am afraid she was disappointed when I offered condolence
+instead of congratulation, and had to tell her that the phenomenon was
+not uncommon among neglected bushes.</p>
+
+<p>When my Rhododendron beds were first planted, I followed the usual
+practice of filling the outer empty spaces of the clumps with hardy
+Heaths. Perhaps it is still the best or one of the best ways to begin
+when the bushes are quite young; for if planted the right distance
+apart&mdash;seven to nine feet&mdash;there must be large bare spaces between; but
+now that they have filled the greater part of the beds, I find that the
+other plants I tried are more to my liking. These are, foremost of all,
+<i>Andromeda Catesbæi</i>, then Lady Fern, and then the dwarf <i>Rhododendron
+myrtifolium</i>. The main spaces between the young bushes I plant with
+<i>Cistus laurifolius</i>, a perfectly hardy kind; this grows much faster
+than the Rhododendrons, and soon fills the middle spaces; by the time
+that the best of its life is over&mdash;for it is a short-lived bush&mdash;the
+Rhododendrons will be wanting all the space. Here and there in the inner
+spaces I put groups of <i>Lilium auratum</i>, a Lily that thrives in a peaty
+bed, and that looks its best when growing through other plants;
+moreover, when the Rhododendrons are out of flower, the Lily, whose
+blooming season is throughout the late summer and autumn, gives a new
+beauty and interest to that part of the garden.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_038" name="Page_038"></a>[038]</span>The time has come for pruning Roses, and for tying up and
+training the plants that clothe wall and fence and pergola. And this
+sets one thinking about climbing and rambling plants, and all their
+various ways and wants, and of how best to use them. One of my
+boundaries to a road is a fence about nine feet high, wall below and
+close oak paling above. It is planted with free-growing Roses of several
+types&mdash;Aimée Vibert, Madame Alfred Carrière, Reine Olga de Wurtemburg,
+and Bouquet d'Or, the strongest of the Dijon teas. Then comes a space of
+<i>Clematis Montana</i> and <i>Clematis flammula</i>, and then more Roses&mdash;Madame
+Plantier, Emélie Plantier (a delightful Rose to cut), and some of the
+grand Sweetbriars raised by Lord Penzance.</p>
+
+<p>From midsummer onward these Roses are continually cut for flower, and
+yield an abundance of quite the most ornamental class of bloom. For I
+like to have cut Roses arranged in a large, free way, with whole
+branches three feet or four feet long, easy to have from these
+free-growing kinds, that throw out branches fifteen feet long in one
+season, even on our poor, sandy soil, that contains no particle of that
+rich loam that Roses love. I think this same Reine Olga, the grand
+grower from which have come our longest and largest prunings, must be
+quite the best evergreen Rose, for it holds its full clothing of
+handsome dark-green leaves right through the winter. It seems to like
+hard pruning. I have one on a part of the pergola, but have no pleasure
+from it, as it has rushed <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_039" name="Page_039"></a>[039]</span>up to the top, and nothing shows
+but a few naked stems.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/39top_a.jpg" width="400" height="301" alt="Garden Door-way wreathed with Clematis Graveolens." title=""/>
+<span class="caption">Garden Door-way wreathed with Clematis Graveolens.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image39" name="image39"></a>
+<img src="images/39bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="317" alt="Cottage Porch wreathed with the Double White Rose (R. alba)" title=""/>
+<span class="caption">Cottage Porch wreathed with the Double White Rose (R. alba)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="nofloat">One has to find out how to use all these different Roses. How often one
+sees the wrong Roses used as climbers on the walls of a house. I have
+seen a Gloire de Dijon covering the side of a house with a profitless
+reticulation of bare stem, and a few leaves and flowers looking into the
+gutter just under the edge of the roof. What are generally recommended
+as climbing Roses are too ready to ramp away, leaving bare, leggy growth
+where wall-clothing is desired. One of the best is climbing Aimée
+Vibert, for with very little pruning it keeps well furnished nearly to
+the ground, and with its graceful clusters of white bloom and
+healthy-looking, polished leaves is always one of the prettiest of
+Roses. Its only fault is that it does not shed its dead petals, but
+retains the whole bloom in dead brown clusters.</p>
+
+<p>But if a Rose wishes to climb, it should be accommodated with a suitable
+place. That excellent old Rose, the Dundee Rambler, or the still
+prettier Garland Rose, will find a way up a Holly-tree, and fling out
+its long wreaths of tenderly-tinted bloom; and there can be no better
+way of using the lovely Himalayan <i>R. Brunonis</i>, with its long, almost
+blue leaves and wealth of milk-white flower. A common Sweetbriar will
+also push up among the branches of some dark evergreen, Yew or Holly,
+and throw out aloft its scented branches and rosy bloom, and look its
+very best.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_040" name="Page_040"></a>[040]</span>But some of these same free Roses are best of all if left in a
+clear space to grow exactly as they will without any kind of support or
+training. So placed, they grow into large rounded groups. Every year,
+just after the young laterals on the last year's branches have flowered,
+they throw out vigorous young rods that arch over as they complete their
+growth, and will be the flower-bearers of the year to come.</p>
+
+<p>Two kinds of Roses of rambling growth that are rather tender, but
+indispensable for beauty, are Fortune's Yellow and the Banksias. Pruning
+the free Roses is always rough work for the hands and clothes, but of
+all Roses I know, the worst to handle is Fortune's Yellow. The prickles
+are hooked back in a way that no care or ingenuity can escape; and
+whether it is their shape and power of cruel grip, or whether they have
+anything of a poisonous quality, I do not know; but whereas hands
+scratched and torn by Roses in general heal quickly, the wounds made by
+Fortune's Yellow are much more painful and much slower to get well. I
+knew an old labourer who died of a rose-prick. He used to work about the
+roads, and at cleaning the ditches and mending the hedges. For some time
+I did not see him, and when I asked another old countryman, "What's gone
+o' Master Trussler?" the answer was, "He's dead&mdash;died of a canker-bush."
+The wild Dog-rose is still the "canker" in the speech of the old people,
+and a thorn or prickle is still a "bush." A Dog-rose prickle had gone
+deep into the old hedger's <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_041" name="Page_041"></a>[041]</span>hand&mdash;a "bush" more or less was
+nothing to him, but the neglected little wound had become tainted with
+some impurity, blood-poisoning had set in, and my poor old friend had
+truly enough "died of a canker-bush."</p>
+
+<p>The flowering season of Fortune's Yellow is a very short one, but it
+comes so early, and the flowers have such incomparable beauty, and are
+so little like those of any other Rose, that its value is quite without
+doubt. Some of the Tea Roses approach it in its pink and copper
+colouring, but the loose, open, rather flaunting form of the flower, and
+the twisted set of the petals, display the colour better than is
+possible in any of the more regular-shaped Roses. It is a good plan to
+grow it through some other wall shrub, as it soon gets bare below, and
+the early maturing flowering tips are glad to be a little sheltered by
+the near neighbourhood of other foliage.</p>
+
+<p>I do not think that there is any other Rose that has just the same rich
+butter colour as the Yellow Banksian, and this unusual colouring is the
+more distinct because each little Rose in the cluster is nearly evenly
+coloured all over, besides being in such dense bunches. The season of
+bloom is very short, but the neat, polished foliage is always pleasant
+to see throughout the year. The white kind and the larger white are both
+lovely as to the individual bloom, but they flower so much more shyly
+that the yellow is much the better garden plant.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_042" name="Page_042"></a>[042]</span>But the best of all climbing or rambling plants, whether for
+wall or arbour or pergola, is undoubtedly the Grape-Vine. Even when
+trimly pruned and trained for fruit-bearing on an outer wall it is an
+admirable picture of leafage and fruit-cluster; but to have it in
+fullest beauty it must ramp at will, for it is only when the
+fast-growing branches are thrown out far and wide that it fairly
+displays its graceful vigour and the generous magnificence of its
+incomparable foliage.</p>
+
+<p>The hardy Chasselas, known in England by the rather misleading name
+Royal Muscadine, is one of the best, both for fruit and foliage. The
+leaves are of moderate size, with clearly serrated edges and that
+strongly waved outline that gives the impression of powerful build, and
+is, in fact, a mechanical contrivance intended to stiffen the structure.
+The colour of the leaves is a fresh, lively green, and in autumn they
+are prettily marbled with yellow. Where a very large-leaved Vine is
+wanted nothing is handsomer than the North American <i>Vitis Labrusca</i> or
+the Asiatic <i>Vitis Coignettii</i>, whose autumn leaves are gorgeously
+coloured. For a place that demands more delicate foliage there is the
+Parsley-Vine, that has a delightful look of refinement, and another that
+should not be forgotten is the Claret-Vine, with autumnal colouring of
+almost scarlet and purple, and abundance of tightly clustered black
+fruit, nearly blue with a heavy bloom.</p>
+
+<p>Many an old house and garden can show the far-rambling <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_043" name="Page_043"></a>[043]</span>power
+of the beautiful <i>Wistaria Chinensis</i>, and of the large-leaved
+<i>Aristolochia Sipho</i>, one of the best plants for covering a pergola, and
+of the varieties of <i>Ampelopsis</i>, near relations of the Grape-Vine. The
+limit of these notes only admits of mention of some of the more
+important climbers; but among these the ever-delightful white Jasmine
+must have a place. It will ramble far and fast if it has its own way,
+but then gives little flower; but by close winter pruning it can be kept
+full of bloom and leaf nearly to the ground.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 268px;">
+<img src="images/43_a.jpg" width="268" height="400" alt="Wild Hop, entwining Wormwood and Cow-Parsnip." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Wild Hop, entwining Wormwood and Cow-Parsnip.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The woods and hedges have also their beautiful climbing plants.
+Honeysuckle in suitable conditions will ramble to great heights&mdash;in this
+district most noticeable in tall Hollies and Junipers as well as in high
+hedges. The wild Clematis is most frequent on the chalk, where it laces
+together whole hedges and rushes up trees, clothing them in July with
+long wreaths of delicate bloom, and in September with still more
+conspicuous feathery seed. For rapid growth perhaps no English plant
+outstrips the Hop, growing afresh from the root every year, and almost
+equalling the Vine in beauty of leaf. The two kinds of wild Bryony are
+also herbaceous climbers of rapid growth, and among the most beautiful
+of our hedge plants.</p>
+
+<p>The wild Roses run up to great heights in hedge and thicket, and never
+look so well as when among the tangles of mixed growth of wild forest
+land or clambering through some old gnarled thorn-tree. The common
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_044" name="Page_044"></a>[044]</span>Brambles are also best seen in these forest groups; these again
+in form of leaf show somewhat of a vine-like beauty.</p>
+
+<p>In the end of March, or at any time during the month when the wind is in
+the east or north-east, all increase and development of vegetation
+appears to cease. As things are, so they remain. Plants that are in
+flower retain their bloom, but, as it were, under protest. A kind of
+sullen dulness pervades all plant life. Sweet-scented shrubs do not give
+off their fragrance; even the woodland moss and earth and dead leaves
+withhold their sweet, nutty scent. The surface of the earth has an arid,
+infertile look; a slight haze of an ugly grey takes the colour out of
+objects in middle distance, and seems to rob the flowers of theirs, or
+to put them out of harmony with all things around. But a day comes, or,
+perhaps, a warmer night, when the wind, now breathing gently from the
+south-west, puts new life into all growing things. A marvellous change
+is wrought in a few hours. A little warm rain has fallen, and plants,
+invisible before, and doubtless still underground, spring into glad
+life.</p>
+
+<p>What an innocent charm there is about many of the true spring flowers.
+Primroses of many colours are now in bloom, but the prettiest, this
+year, is a patch of an early blooming white one, grouped with a delicate
+lilac. Then comes <i>Omphalodes verna</i>, with its flowers of brilliant blue
+and foliage of brightest green, better described by its pretty
+north-country name, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_045" name="Page_045"></a>[045]</span>Blue-eyed Mary. There are Violets of many
+colours, but daintiest of all is the pale-blue St. Helena; whether it is
+the effect of its delicate colouring, or whether it has really a better
+scent than other varieties of the common Violet, I cannot say, but it
+always seems to have a more refined fragrance.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_046" name="Page_046"></a>[046]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h4>APRIL</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Woodland spring flowers &mdash; Daffodils in the copse &mdash; Grape
+Hyacinths and other spring bulbs &mdash; How best to plant them &mdash;
+Flowering shrubs &mdash; Rock-plants &mdash; Sweet scents of April &mdash;
+Snowy Mespilus, Marsh Marigolds, and other spring flowers &mdash;
+Primrose garden &mdash; Pollen of Scotch Fir &mdash; Opening seed-pods of
+Fir and Gorse &mdash; Auriculas &mdash; Tulips &mdash; Small shrubs for
+rock-garden &mdash; Daffodils as cut flowers &mdash; Lent Hellebores &mdash;
+Primroses &mdash; Leaves of wild Arum.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />In early April there is quite a wealth of flower among plants that
+belong half to wood and half to garden. <i>Epimedium pinnatum</i>, with its
+delicate, orchid-like spike of pale-yellow bloom, flowers with its last
+year's leaves, but as soon as it is fully out the young leaves rush up,
+as if hastening to accompany the flowers. <i>Dentaria pinnata</i>, a woodland
+plant of Switzerland and Austria, is one of the handsomest of the
+white-flowered <i>cruciferæ</i>, with well-filled heads of twelve to fifteen
+flowers, and palmate leaves of freshest green. Hard by, and the best
+possible plant to group with it, is the lovely Virginian Cowslip
+(<i>Mertensia virginica</i>), the very embodiment of the freshness of early
+spring. The sheaf of young leafage comes almost black out <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_047" name="Page_047"></a>[047]</span>of
+the ground, but as the leaves develop, their dull, lurid colouring
+changes to a full, pale green of a curious texture, quite smooth, and
+yet absolutely unreflecting. The dark colouring of the young leaves now
+only remains as a faint tracery of veining on the backs of the leaves
+and stalks, and at last dies quite away as the bloom expands. The flower
+is of a rare and beautiful quality of colour, hard to describe&mdash;a
+rainbow-flower of purple, indigo, full and pale blue, and daintiest
+lilac, full of infinite variety and indescribable charm. The flowers are
+in terminal clusters, richly filled; lesser clusters springing from the
+axils of the last few leaves and joining with the topmost one to form a
+gracefully drooping head. The lurid colouring of the young leaves is
+recalled in the flower-stems and calix, and enhances the colour effect
+of the whole. The flower of the common Dog-tooth Violet is over, but the
+leaves have grown larger and handsomer. They look as if, originally of a
+purplish-red colour, some liquid had been dropped on them, making
+confluent pools of pale green, lightest at the centre of the drop. The
+noblest plant of the same family (<i>Erythronium giganteum</i>) is now in
+flower&mdash;a striking and beautiful wood plant, with turn-cap shaped
+flowers of palest straw-colour, almost white, and large leaves, whose
+markings are not drop-like as in the more familiar kind, but are
+arranged in a regular sequence of bold splashings, reminding one of a
+<i>Maranta</i>. The flowers, single or in pairs, rise on stems a foot or
+fifteen <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_048" name="Page_048"></a>[048]</span>inches high; the throat is beautifully marked with
+flames of rich bay on a yellow ground, and the handsome group of
+golden-anthered stamens and silvery pistil make up a flower of singular
+beauty and refinement. That valuable Indian Primrose, <i>P. denticulata</i>,
+is another fine plant for the cool edge or shady hollows of woodland in
+rather good, deep soil.</p>
+
+<p>But the glory of the copse just now consists in the great stretches of
+Daffodils. Through the wood run shallow, parallel hollows, the lowest
+part of each depression some nine paces apart. Local tradition says they
+are the remains of old pack-horse roads; they occur frequently in the
+forest-like heathery uplands of our poor-soiled, sandy land, running,
+for the most part, three or four together, almost evenly side by side.
+The old people account for this by saying that when one track became too
+much worn another was taken by its side. Where these pass through the
+birch copse the Daffodils have been planted in the shallow hollows of
+the old ways, in spaces of some three yards broad by thirty or forty
+yards long&mdash;one kind at a time. Two of such tracks, planted with
+<i>Narcissus princeps</i> and <i>N. Horsfieldi</i>, are now waving rivers of
+bloom, in many lights and accidents of cloud and sunshine full of
+pictorial effect. The planting of Daffodils in this part of the copse is
+much better than in any other portions where there were no guiding
+track-ways, and where they were planted in haphazard sprinklings.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/48_a.jpg" width="400" height="265" alt="Daffodils in the Copse." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Daffodils in the Copse.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Grape Hyacinths are now in full bloom. It <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_049" name="Page_049"></a>[049]</span>is well to
+avoid the common one (<i>Muscari racemosum</i>), at any rate in light soils,
+where it becomes a troublesome weed. One of the best is <i>M. conicum</i>;
+this, with the upright-leaved <i>M. botryoides</i>, and its white variety,
+are the best for general use, but the Plume Hyacinth, which flowers
+later, should have a place. <i>Ornithogalum nutans</i> is another of the
+bulbous plants that, though beautiful in flower, becomes so pestilent a
+weed that it is best excluded.</p>
+
+<p>Where and how the early flowering bulbs had best be planted is a
+question of some difficulty. Perhaps the mixed border, where they are
+most usually put, is the worst place of all, for when in flower they
+only show as forlorn little patches of bloom rather far apart, and when
+their leaves die down, leaving their places looking empty, the ruthless
+spade or trowel stabs into them when it is desired to fill the space
+with some other plant. Moreover, when the border is manured and partly
+dug in the autumn, it is difficult to avoid digging up the bulbs just
+when they are in full root-growth. Probably the best plan is to devote a
+good space of cool bank to small bulbs and hardy ferns, planting the
+ferns in such groups as will leave good spaces for the bulbs; then as
+their leaves are going the fern fronds are developing and will cover the
+whole space. Another way is to have them among any groups of newly
+planted small shrubs, to be left there for spring blooming until the
+shrubs have covered their allotted space.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_050" name="Page_050"></a>[050]</span>Many flowering shrubs are in beauty. <i>Andromeda floribunda</i>
+still holds its persistent bloom that has endured for nearly two months.
+The thick, drooping, tassel-like bunches of bloom of <i>Andromeda
+japonica</i> are just going over. <i>Magnolia stellata</i>, a compact bush some
+five feet high and wide, is white with the multitude of its starry
+flowers; individually they look half double, having fourteen to sixteen
+petals. <i>Forsythia suspensa</i>, with its graceful habit and tender yellow
+flower, is a much better shrub than <i>F. viridissima</i>, though, strangely
+enough, that is the one most commonly planted. Corchorus, with its
+bright-yellow balls, the fine old rosy Ribes, the Japan Quinces and
+their salmon-coloured relative <i>Pyrus Mauleii</i>, <i>Spiræa Thunbergi</i>, with
+its neat habit and myriads of tiny flowers, these make frequent points
+of beauty and interest.</p>
+
+<p>In the rock-garden, <i>Cardamine trifoliata</i> and <i>Hutchinsia alpina</i> are
+conspicuous from their pure white flowers and neat habit; both have
+leaves of darkest green, as if the better to show off the bloom.
+<i>Ranunculus montanus</i> fringes the cool base of a large stone; its whole
+height not over three inches, though its bright-yellow flowers are
+larger than field buttercups. The surface of the petals is curiously
+brilliant, glistening and flashing like glass. <i>Corydalis capnoides</i> is
+a charming rock-plant, with flowers of palest sulphur colour, one of the
+neatest and most graceful of its family.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/50_a.jpg" width="400" height="266" alt="Magnolia stellata." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Magnolia stellata.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 271px;"><a id="image51" name="image51"></a>
+<img src="images/51_a.jpg" width="271" height="400" alt="Daffodils among Junipers where Garden Joins Copse." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Daffodils among Junipers where Garden Joins Copse.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_051" name="Page_051"></a>[051]</span>Border plants are pushing up vigorous green growth; finest of
+all are the Veratrums, with their bold, deeply-plaited leaves of
+brilliant green. Delphiniums and Oriental Poppies have also made strong
+foliage, and Daylilies are conspicuous from their fresh masses of pale
+greenery. Flag Iris have their leaves three parts grown, and Pæonies are
+a foot or more high, in all varieties of rich red colouring. It is a
+good plan, when they are in beds or large groups, to plant the
+dark-flowered Wallflowers among them, their colour making a rich harmony
+with the reds of the young Pæony growths.</p>
+
+<p>There are balmy days in mid-April, when the whole garden is fragrant
+with Sweetbriar. It is not "fast of its smell," as Bacon says of the
+damask rose, but gives it so lavishly that one cannot pass near a plant
+without being aware of its gracious presence. Passing upward through the
+copse, the warm air draws a fragrance almost as sweet, but infinitely
+more subtle, from the fresh green of the young birches; it is like a
+distant whiff of Lily of the Valley. Higher still the young leafage of
+the larches gives a delightful perfume of the same kind. It seems as if
+it were the office of these mountain trees, already nearest the high
+heaven, to offer an incense of praise for their new life.</p>
+
+<p>Few plants will grow under Scotch fir, but a notable exception is the
+Whortleberry, now a sheet of brilliant green, and full of its
+arbutus-like, pink-tinged <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_052" name="Page_052"></a>[052]</span>flower. This plant also has a
+pleasant scent in the mass, difficult to localise, but coming in whiffs
+as it will.</p>
+
+<p>The snowy Mespilus (<i><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Amelancheir'">Amelanchier</ins></i>) shows like puffs of smoke among the
+firs and birches, full of its milk-white, cherry-like bloom&mdash;a true
+woodland shrub or small tree. It loves to grow in a thicket of other
+trees, and to fling its graceful sprays about through their branches. It
+is a doubtful native, but naturalised and plentiful in the neighbouring
+woods. As seen in gardens, it is usually a neat little tree of shapely
+form, but it is more beautiful when growing at its own will in the high
+woods.</p>
+
+<p>Marshy hollows in the valleys are brilliant with Marsh Marigold (<i>Caltha
+palustris</i>); damp meadows have them in plenty, but they are largest and
+handsomest in the alder-swamps of our valley bottoms, where their great
+luscious clumps rise out of pools of black mud and water.</p>
+
+<p><i>Adonis vernalis</i> is one of the brightest flowers of the middle of
+April, the flowers looking large for the size of the plant. The
+bright-yellow, mostly eight-petalled, blooms are comfortably seated in
+dense, fennel-like masses of foliage. It makes strong tufts, that are
+the better for division every four years. The spring Bitter-vetch
+(<i>Orobus vernus</i>) blooms at the same time, a remarkably clean-looking
+plant, with its cheerful red and purple blossom and handsomely divided
+leaves. It is one of the toughest of plants to divide, the mass of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_053" name="Page_053"></a>[053]</span>black root is like so much wire. It is a good plan with plants
+that have such roots, when dividing-time comes, to take the clumps to a
+strong bench or block and cut them through at the crown with a sharp
+cold-chisel and hammer. Another of the showiest families of plants of
+the time is <i>Doronicum</i>. <i>D. Austriacum</i> is the earliest, but it is
+closely followed by the fine <i>D. Plantagineum</i>. The large form of wood
+Forget-me-not (<i>Myosotis sylvatica major</i>) is in sheets of bloom,
+opening pink and changing to a perfect blue. This is a great improvement
+on the old smaller one. Grouped with it, as an informal border, and in
+patches running through and among its clumps, is the Foam-flower
+(<i>Tiarella cordifolia</i>), whose flower in the mass looks like the wreaths
+of foam tossed aside by a mountain torrent. By the end of the month the
+Satin-leaf (<i>Heuchera Richardsoni</i>) is pushing up its richly-coloured
+leaves, of a strong bronze-red, gradating to bronze-green at the outer
+edge. The beauty of the plant is in the colour and texture of the
+foliage. To encourage full leaf growth the flower stems should be
+pinched out, and as they push up rather persistently, they should be
+looked over every few days for about a fortnight.</p>
+
+<div class="floatleft" style="width: 259px">
+<img src="images/53left_a.jpg" width="259" height="350" alt="Tiarella cordifolia." title=""/>
+<span class="caption">Tiarella cordifolia. <br />Height, 12 inches.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="floatright" style="width: 260px">
+<img src="images/53right_a.jpg" width="260" height="350" alt="Hollyhock, Pink Beauty." title=""/>
+<span class="caption">Hollyhock, Pink Beauty.<br /> See page <a href="#image105">105</a>. <br />Height, 9 feet.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="nofloat">The Primrose garden is now in beauty, but I have so much to say about it
+that I have given it a chapter to itself towards the end of the book.</p>
+
+<p>The Scotch firs are shedding their pollen; a flowering branch shaken or
+struck with a stick throws out a <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_054" name="Page_054"></a>[054]</span>pale-yellow cloud. Heavy rain
+will wash it out, so that after a storm the sides of the roads and paths
+look as if powdered sulphur had been washed up in drifts. The sun has
+gained great power, and on still bright days sharp <i>snicking</i> sounds are
+to be heard from the firs. The dry cones of last year are opening, and
+the flattened seeds with their paper-like edges are fluttering down.
+Another sound, much like it but just a shade sharper and more
+<i>staccato</i>, is heard from the Gorse bushes, whose dry pods are flying
+open and letting fall the hard, polished, little bean-like seeds.</p>
+
+<p>Border Auriculas are making a brave show. Nothing in the flower year is
+more interesting than a bed of good seedlings of the Alpine class. I
+know nothing better for pure beauty of varied colouring among early
+flowers. Except in varieties of <i>Salpiglossis</i>, such rich gradation of
+colour, from pale lilac to rich purple, and from rosy pink to deepest
+crimson, is hardly to be found in any one family of plants. There are
+varieties of cloudings of smoky-grey, sometimes approaching black,
+invading, and at the same time enhancing, the purer colours, and numbers
+of shades of half-tones of red and purple, such as are comprised within
+the term <i>murrey</i> of heraldry, and tender blooms of one colour, sulphurs
+and milk-whites&mdash;all with the admirable texture and excellent perfume
+that belong to the "Bear's-ears" of old English gardens. For practical
+purposes the florist's definition of a good Auricula is of little value;
+that is for the show-table, and, as Bacon says, "Nothing to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_055" name="Page_055"></a>[055]</span>true pleasure of a garden." The qualities to look for in the
+bed of seedlings are not the narrowing ones of proportion of eye to
+tube, of exact circle in the circumference of the individual pip, and so
+on, but to notice whether the plant has a handsome look and stands up
+well, and is a delightful and beautiful thing as a whole.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/55top_a.jpg" width="400" height="294" alt="Tulipa Retroflexa." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Tulipa Retroflexa.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image55" name="image55"></a>
+<img src="images/55bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="Late single Tulips, Breeders and Bybl&oelig;men." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Late single Tulips, Breeders and Bybl&oelig;men.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tulips are the great garden flowers in the last week of April and
+earliest days of May. In this plant also the rule of the show-table is
+no sure guide to garden value; for the show Tulip, beautiful though it
+is, is of one class alone&mdash;namely, the best of the "broken" varieties of
+the self-coloured seedlings called "breeders." These seedlings, after
+some years of cultivation, change or "break" into a variation in which
+the original colouring is only retained in certain flames or feathers of
+colour, on a ground of either white or yellow. If the flames in each
+petal are symmetrical and well arranged, according to the rules laid
+down by the florist, it is a good flower; it receives a name, and
+commands a certain price. If, on the other hand, the markings are
+irregular, however beautiful the colouring, the flower is comparatively
+worthless, and is "thrown into mixture." The kinds that are the grandest
+in gardens are ignored by the florist. One of the best for graceful and
+delicate beauty is <i>Tulipa retroflexa</i>, of a soft lemon-yellow colour,
+and twisted and curled petals; then Silver Crown, a white flower with a
+delicate picotee-like thread of scarlet along the edge of the sharply
+pointed and <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_056" name="Page_056"></a>[056]</span>reflexed petals. A variety of this called Sulphur
+Crown is only a little less beautiful. Then there is Golden Crown, also
+with pointed petals and occasional threadings of scarlet. Nothing is
+more gorgeous than the noble <i>Gesneriana major</i>, with its great chalice
+of crimson-scarlet and pools of blue in the inner base of each petal.
+The gorgeously flamed Parrot Tulips are indispensable, and the large
+double Yellow Rose, and the early double white La Candeur. Of the later
+kinds there are many of splendid colouring and noble port; conspicuous
+among them are <i>Reine d'Espagne</i>, <i>Couleur de vin</i>, and <i>Bleu celeste</i>.
+There are beautiful colourings of scarlet, crimson, yellow, chocolate,
+and purple among the "breeders," as well as among the so-called
+<i>bizarres</i> and <i>bybloemen</i> that comprise the show kinds.</p>
+
+<p>The best thing now in the rock-garden is a patch of some twenty plants
+of <i>Arnebia echioides</i>, always happy in our poor, dry soil. It is of the
+Borage family, a native of Armenia. It flowers in single or
+double-branching spikes of closely-set flowers of a fine yellow. Just
+below each indentation of the five-lobed corolla is a spot which looks
+black by contrast, but is of a very dark, rich, velvety brown. The day
+after the flower has expanded the spot has faded to a moderate brown,
+the next day to a faint tinge, and on the fourth day it is gone. The
+legend, accounting for the spots, says that Mahomet touched the flower
+with the tips of his fingers, hence its English name of Prophet-flower.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_057" name="Page_057"></a>[057]</span>The upper parts of the rock-garden that are beyond hand-reach
+are planted with dwarf shrubs, many of them sweetly scented either as to
+leaf or flower&mdash;<i>Gaultherias</i>, Sweet Gale, Alpine Rhododendron,
+<i>Skimmias</i>, <i>Pernettyas</i>, <i>Ledums</i>, and hardy Daphnes. <i>Daphne pontica</i>
+now gives off delicious wafts of fragrance, intensely sweet in the
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>In March and April Daffodils are the great flowers for house decoration,
+coming directly after the Lent Hellebores. Many people think these
+beautiful late-flowering Hellebores useless for cutting because they
+live badly in water. But if properly prepared they live quite well, and
+will remain ten days in beauty. Directly they are cut, and immediately
+before putting in water, the stalks should be slit up three or four
+inches, or according to their length, and then put in deep, so that the
+water comes nearly up to the flowers; and so they should remain, in a
+cool place, for some hours, or for a whole night, after which they can
+be arranged for the room. Most of them are inclined to droop; it is the
+habit of the plant in growth; this may be corrected by arranging them
+with something stiff like Box or Berberis.</p>
+
+<p><i>Anemone fulgens</i> is a grand cutting flower, and looks well with its own
+leaves only or with flowering twigs of Laurustinus. Then there are
+Pansies, delightful things in a room, but they should be cut in whole
+branches of leafy stem and flower and bud. At first the growths are
+short and only suit dish-shaped things, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_058" name="Page_058"></a>[058]</span>but as the season goes
+on they grow longer and bolder, and graduate first into bowls and then
+into upright glasses. I think Pansies are always best without mixture of
+other flowers, and in separate colours, or only in such varied tints as
+make harmonies of one class of colour at a time.</p>
+
+<p>The big yellow and white bunch Primroses are delightful room flowers,
+beautiful, and of sweetest scent. When full-grown the flower-stalks are
+ten inches long and more. Among the seedlings there are always a certain
+number that are worthless. These are pounced upon as soon as they show
+their bloom, and cut up for greenery to go with the cut flowers, leaving
+the root-stock with all its middle foliage, and cutting away the roots
+and any rough outside leaves.</p>
+
+<p>When the first Daffodils are out and suitable greenery is not abundant
+in the garden (for it does not do to cut their own blades), I bring home
+handfuls of the wild Arum leaves, so common in roadside hedges, grasping
+the whole plant close to the ground; then a steady pull breaks it away
+from the tuber, and you have a fine long-stalked sheaf of leafage held
+together by its own underground stem. This should be prepared like the
+Lent Hellebores, by putting it deep in water for a time. I always think
+the trumpet Daffodils look better with this than with any other kind of
+foliage. When the wild Arum is full-grown the leaves are so large and
+handsome that they do quite well to accompany the white Arum flowers
+from the greenhouse.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_059" name="Page_059"></a>[059]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h4>MAY</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Cowslips &mdash; Morells &mdash; Woodruff &mdash; Felling oak timber &mdash;
+Trillium and other wood-plants &mdash; Lily of the Valley
+naturalised &mdash; Rock-wall flowers &mdash; Two good wall-shrubs &mdash;
+Queen wasps &mdash; Rhododendrons &mdash; Arrangement for colour &mdash;
+Separate colour-groups &mdash; Difficulty of choosing &mdash; Hardy
+Azaleas &mdash; Grouping flowers that bloom together &mdash; Guelder-rose
+as climber &mdash; The garden-wall door &mdash; The Pæony garden &mdash;
+Moutans &mdash; Pæony varieties &mdash; Species desirable for garden.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />While May is still young, Cowslips are in beauty on the chalk lands a
+few miles distant, but yet within pleasant reach. They are finest of all
+in orchards, where the grass grows tall and strong under the half-shade
+of the old apple-trees, some of the later kinds being still loaded with
+bloom. The blooming of the Cowslip is the signal for a search for the
+Morell, one of the very best of the edible fungi. It grows in open woods
+or where the undergrowth has not yet grown high, and frequently in old
+parks and pastures near or under elms. It is quite unlike any other
+fungus; shaped like a tall egg, with the pointed end upwards, on a
+short, hollow stalk, and looking something like a sponge. It has a
+delicate and excellent flavour, and is perfectly wholesome.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_060" name="Page_060"></a>[060]</span>The pretty little Woodruff is in flower; what scent is so
+delicate as that of its leaves? They are almost sweeter when dried, each
+little whorl by itself, with the stalk cut closely away above and below.
+It is a pleasant surprise to come upon these fragrant little stars
+between the leaves of a book. The whole plant revives memories of
+rambles in Bavarian woodlands, and of Mai-trank, that best of the "cup"
+tribe of pleasant drinks, whose flavour is borrowed from its flowering
+tips.</p>
+
+<p>In the first week in May oak-timber is being felled. The wood is
+handsomer, from showing the grain better, when it is felled in the
+winter, but it is delayed till now because of the value of the bark for
+tanning, and just now the fast-rising sap makes the bark strip easily. A
+heavy fall is taking place in the fringes of a large wood of old Scotch
+fir. Where the oaks grow there is a blue carpet of wild Hyacinth; the
+pathway is a slightly hollowed lane, so that the whole sheet of flower
+right and left is nearly on a level with the eye, and looks like solid
+pools of blue. The oaks not yet felled are putting forth their leaves of
+golden bronze. The song of the nightingale and the ring of the woodman's
+axe gain a rich musical quality from the great fir wood. Why a wood of
+Scotch fir has this wonderful property of a kind of musical
+reverberation I do not know; but so it is. Any sound that occurs within
+it is, on a lesser scale, like a sound in a cathedral. The tree itself
+when struck gives a musical note. Strike an oak or an elm on the trunk
+with a stick, and the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_061" name="Page_061"></a>[061]</span>sound is mute; strike a Scotch fir, and
+it is a note of music.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 267px;">
+<img src="images/61_a.jpg" width="267" height="397" alt="Trillium in the Wild Garden." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Trillium in the Wild Garden.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the copse are some prosperous patches of the beautiful North American
+Wood-lily (<i>Trillium grandiflorum</i>). It likes a bed of deep leaf-soil on
+levels or cool slopes in woodland, where its large white flowers and
+whorls of handsome leaves look quite at home. Beyond it are widely
+spreading patches of Solomon's Seal and tufts of the Wood-rush (<i>Luzula
+sylvatica</i>), showing by their happy vigour how well they like their
+places, while the natural woodland carpet of moss and dead leaves puts
+the whole together. Higher in the copse the path runs through stretches
+of the pretty little <i>Smilacina bifolia</i>, and the ground beyond this is
+a thick bed of Whortleberry, filling all the upper part of the copse
+under oak and birch and Scotch fir. The little flower-bells of the
+Whortleberry have already given place to the just-formed fruit, which
+will ripen in July, and be a fine feast for the blackbirds.</p>
+
+<p>Other parts of the copse, where there was no Heath or Whortleberry, were
+planted thinly with the large Lily of the Valley. It has spread and
+increased and become broad sheets of leaf and bloom, from which
+thousands of flowers can be gathered without making gaps, or showing
+that any have been removed; when the bloom is over the leaves still
+stand in handsome masses till they are hidden by the fast-growing
+bracken. They do not hurt each other, as it seems that the Lily of the
+Valley, having the roots running just underground, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_062" name="Page_062"></a>[062]</span>while the
+fern-roots are much deeper, the two occupy their respective <i>strata</i> in
+perfect good fellowship. The neat little <i>Smilacina</i> is a near relation
+of the Lily of the Valley; its leaves are of an even more vivid green,
+and its little modest spikes of white flower are charming. It loves the
+poor, sandy soil, and increases in it fast, but will have nothing to say
+to clay. A very delicate and beautiful North American fern (<i>Dicksonia
+punctilobulata</i>) proves a good colonist in the copse. It spreads rapidly
+by creeping roots, and looks much like our native <i>Thelipteris</i>, but is
+of a paler green colour. In the rock-garden the brightest patches of
+bloom are shown by the tufts of dwarf Wallflowers; of these,
+<i>Cheiranthus alpinus</i> has a strong lemon colour that is of great
+brilliancy in the mass, and <i>C. Marshalli</i> is of a dark orange colour,
+equally powerful. The curiously-tinted <i>C. mutabilis</i>, as its name
+implies, changes from a light mahogany colour when just open, first to
+crimson and then to purple. In length of life <i>C. alpinus</i> and <i>C.
+Marshalli</i> are rather more than biennials, and yet too short-lived to be
+called true perennials; cuttings of one year flower the next, and are
+handsome tufts the year after, but are scarcely worth keeping longer.
+<i>C. mutabilis</i> is longer lived, especially if the older growths are cut
+right away, when the tuft will generally spring into vigorous new life.</p>
+
+<p><i>Orobus aurantiacus</i> is a beautiful plant not enough grown, one of the
+handsomest of the Pea family, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_063" name="Page_063"></a>[063]</span>with flowers of a fine orange
+colour, and foliage of a healthy-looking golden-green. A striking and
+handsome plant in the upper part of the rockery is <i>Othonna
+cheirifolia</i>; its aspect is unusual and interesting, with its bunches of
+thick, blunt-edged leaves of blue-grey colouring, and large yellow daisy
+flowers. There is a pretty group of the large white Thrift, and near it
+a spreading carpet of blue Veronica and some of the splendid
+gentian-blue <i>Phacelia campanularia</i>, a valuable annual for filling any
+bare patches of rockery where its brilliant colouring will suit the
+neighbouring plants, or, best of all, in patches among dwarf ferns,
+where its vivid blue would be seen to great advantage.</p>
+
+<p>Two wall-shrubs have been conspicuously beautiful during May; the
+Mexican Orange-flower (<i>Choisya ternata</i>) has been smothered in its
+white bloom, so closely resembling orange-blossom. With a slight winter
+protection of fir boughs it seems quite at home in our hot, dry soil,
+grows fast, and is very easy to propagate by layers. When cut, it lasts
+for more than a week in water. <i>Piptanthus nepalensis</i> has also made a
+handsome show, with its abundant yellow, pea-shaped bloom and deep-green
+trefoil leaves. The dark-green stems have a slight bloom on a
+half-polished surface, and a pale ring at each joint gives them somewhat
+the look of bamboos.</p>
+
+<p>Now is the time to look out for the big queen wasps and to destroy as
+many as possible. They seem to be specially fond of the flowers of two
+plants, the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_064" name="Page_064"></a>[064]</span>large perennial Cornflower (<i>Centaurea montana</i>)
+and the common Cotoneaster. I have often secured a dozen in a few
+minutes on one or other of these plants, first knocking them down with a
+battledore.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image65" name="image65"></a>
+<img src="images/65top_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="Rhododendrons where the Copse and Garden meet." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/65bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="Rhododendrons where the Copse and Garden meet." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Rhododendrons where the Copse and Garden meet.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now, in the third week of May, Rhododendrons are in full bloom on the
+edge of the copse. The plantation was made about nine years ago, in one
+of the regions where lawn and garden were to join the wood. During the
+previous blooming season the best nurseries were visited and careful
+observations made of colouring, habit, and time of blooming. The space
+they were to fill demanded about seventy bushes, allowing an average of
+eight feet from plant to plant&mdash;not seventy different kinds, but,
+perhaps, ten of one kind, and two or three fives, and some threes, and a
+few single plants, always bearing in mind the ultimate intention of
+pictorial aspect as a whole. In choosing the plants and in arranging and
+disposing the groups these ideas were kept in mind: to make pleasant
+ways from lawn to copse; to group only in beautiful colour harmonies; to
+choose varieties beautiful in themselves; to plant thoroughly well, and
+to avoid overcrowding. Plantations of these grand shrubs are generally
+spoilt or ineffective, if not absolutely jarring, for want of attention
+to these simple rules. The choice of kinds is now so large, and the
+variety of colouring so extensive, that nothing can be easier than to
+make beautiful combinations, if intending planters will only take the
+small amount of preliminary trouble that is needful. <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_065" name="Page_065"></a>[065]</span>Some of
+the clumps are of brilliant scarlet-crimson, rose and white, but out of
+the great choice of colours that might be so named only those are chosen
+that make just the colour-harmony that was intended. A large group,
+quite detached from this one, and more in the shade of the copse, is of
+the best of the lilacs, purples, and whites. When some clumps of young
+hollies have grown, those two groups will not be seen at the same time,
+except from a distance. The purple and white group is at present rather
+the handsomest, from the free-growing habit of the fine old kind <i>Album
+elegans</i>, which forms towering masses at the back. A detail of pictorial
+effect that was aimed at, and that has come out well, was devised in the
+expectation that the purple groups would look richer in the shade, and
+the crimson ones in the sun. This arrangement has answered admirably.
+Before planting, the ground, of the poorest quality possible, was deeply
+trenched, and the Rhododendrons were planted in wide holes filled with
+peat, and finished with a comfortable "mulch," or surface-covering of
+farmyard manure. From this a supply of grateful nutriment was gradually
+washed in to the roots. This beneficial surface-dressing was renewed
+every year for two years after planting, and even longer in the case of
+the slower growing kinds. No plant better repays care during its early
+years. Broad grass paths leading from the lawn at several points pass
+among the clumps, and are continued through the upper parts of the
+copse, passing through <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_066" name="Page_066"></a>[066]</span>zones of different trees; first a good
+stretch of birch and holly, then of Spanish chestnut, next of oak, and
+finally of Scotch fir, with a sprinkling of birch and mountain ash, all
+with an undergrowth of heath and whortleberry and bracken. Thirty years
+ago it was all a wood of old Scotch fir. This was cut at its best
+marketable maturity, and the present young wood is made of what came up
+self-sown. This natural wild growth was thick enough to allow of
+vigorous cutting out, and the preponderance of firs in the upper part
+and of birch in the lower suggested that these were the kinds that
+should predominate in their respective places.</p>
+
+<div class="floatleftnew" style="width: 260px">
+<img src="images/66left_a.jpg" width="260" height="350" alt="Grass Walks through the Copse." title=""/>
+</div>
+
+<div class="floatrightnew" style="width: 264px">
+<img src="images/66right_a.jpg" width="264" height="350" alt="Grass Walks through the Copse." title=""/>
+</div>
+
+<div class="nofloat" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 25px"><span class="caption">Grass Walks through the Copse.</span></div>
+
+<p>It may be useful to describe a little more in detail the plan I followed
+in grouping Rhododendrons, for I feel sure that any one with a feeling
+for harmonious colouring, having once seen or tried some such plan, will
+never again approve of the haphazard mixtures. There may be better
+varieties representing the colourings aimed at in the several groups,
+but those named are ones that I know, and they will serve as well as any
+others to show what is meant.</p>
+
+<p>The colourings seem to group themselves into six classes of easy
+harmonies, which I venture to describe thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>1. Crimsons inclining to scarlet or blood-colour grouped with dark
+claret-colour and true pink.</p>
+
+<p>In this group I have planted Nigrescens, dark claret-colour; John
+Waterer and James Marshall Brook, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_067" name="Page_067"></a>[067]</span>both fine red-crimsons;
+Alexander Adie and Atrosanguineum, good crimsons, inclining to
+blood-colour; Alarm, rosy-scarlet; and Bianchi, pure pink.</p>
+
+<p>2. Light scarlet rose colours inclining to salmon, a most desirable
+range of colour, but of which the only ones I know well are Mrs. R. S.
+Holford, and a much older kind, Lady Eleanor Cathcart. These I put by
+themselves, only allowing rather near them the good pink Bianchi.</p>
+
+<p>3. Rose colours inclining to amaranth.</p>
+
+<p>4. Amaranths or magenta-crimsons.</p>
+
+<p>5. Crimson or amaranth-purples.</p>
+
+<p>6. Cool clear purples of the typical <i>ponticum</i> class, both dark and
+light, grouped with lilac-whites, such as <i>Album elegans</i> and <i>Album
+grandiflorum</i>. The beautiful partly-double <i>Everestianum</i> comes into
+this group, but nothing redder among purples. <i>Fastuosum florepleno</i> is
+also admitted, and <i>Luciferum</i> and <i>Reine Hortense</i>, both good
+lilac-whites. But the purples that are most effective are merely
+<i>ponticum</i> seedlings, chosen when in bloom in the nursery for their
+depth and richness of cool purple colour.</p>
+
+<p>My own space being limited, I chose three of the above groups only,
+leaving out, as of colouring less pleasing to my personal liking, groups
+3, 4, and 5. The remaining ones gave me examples of colouring the most
+widely different, and at the same time the most agreeable to my
+individual taste. It would have been easier, if that had been the
+object, to have made groups <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_068" name="Page_068"></a>[068]</span>of the three other classes of
+colouring, which comprise by far the largest number of the splendid
+varieties now grown. There are a great many beautiful whites; of these,
+two that I most admire are Madame Carvalho and Sappho; the latter is an
+immense flower, with a conspicuous purple blotch. There is also a grand
+old kind called Minnie, a very large-growing one, with fine white
+trusses; and a dwarf-growing white that comes early into bloom is
+Cunningham's White, also useful for forcing, as it is a small plant, and
+a free bloomer.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more perplexing than to judge of the relative merits of
+colours in a Rhododendron nursery, where they are all mixed up. I have
+twice been specially to look for varieties of a true pink colour, but
+the quantity of untrue pinks is so great that anything approaching a
+clear pink looks much better than it is. In this way I chose Kate
+Waterer and Sylph, both splendid varieties; but when I grew them with my
+true pink Bianchi they would not do, the colour having the suspicion of
+rank quality that I wished to keep out of that group. This same Bianchi,
+with its mongrel-sounding name, I found was not grown in the larger
+nurseries. I had it from Messrs. Maurice Young, of the Milford
+Nurseries, near Godalming. I regretted to hear lately from some one to
+whom I recommended it that it could not be supplied. It is to be hoped
+that so good a thing has not been lost.</p>
+
+<p>A little way from the main Rhododendron clumps, and among bushy
+Andromedas, I have the splendid <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_069" name="Page_069"></a>[069]</span>hybrid of <i>R. Aucklandi</i>,
+raised by Mr. A. Waterer. The trusses are astoundingly large, and the
+individual blooms large and delicately beautiful, like small
+richly-modelled lilies of a tender, warm, white colour. It is quite
+hardy south of London, and unquestionably desirable. Its only fault is
+leggy growth; one year's growth measures twenty-three inches, but this
+only means that it should be planted among other bushes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/68_a.jpg" width="400" height="271" alt="Rhododendrons at the Edge of the Copse." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Rhododendrons at the Edge of the Copse.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The last days of May see hardy Azaleas in beauty. Any of them may be
+planted in company, for all their colours harmonise. In this garden,
+where care is taken to group plants well for colour, the whites are
+planted at the lower and more shady end of the group; next come the pale
+yellows and pale pinks, and these are followed at a little distance by
+kinds whose flowers are of orange, copper, flame, and scarlet-crimson
+colourings; this strong-coloured group again softening off at the upper
+end by strong yellows, and dying away into the woodland by bushes of the
+common yellow <i>Azalea pontica</i>, and its variety with flowers of larger
+size and deeper colour. The plantation is long in shape, straggling over
+a space of about half an acre, the largest and strongest-coloured group
+being in an open clearing about midway in the length. The ground between
+them is covered with a natural growth of the wild Ling (<i>Calluna</i>) and
+Whortleberry, and the small, white-flowered Bed-straw, with the
+fine-bladed Sheep's-fescue grass, the kind most abundant in heathland.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_070" name="Page_070"></a>[070]</span>The surrounding ground is copse, of a wild, forest-like
+character, of birch and small oak. A wood-path of wild heath cut short
+winds through the planted group, which also comprises some of the
+beautiful white-flowered Californian <i>Azalea occidentalis</i>, and bushes
+of some of the North American Vacciniums.</p>
+
+<p>Azaleas should never be planted among or even within sight of
+Rhododendrons. Though both enjoy a moist peat soil, and have a near
+botanical relationship, they are incongruous in appearance, and
+impossible to group together for colour. This must be understood to
+apply to the two classes of plants of the hardy kinds, as commonly grown
+in gardens. There are tender kinds of the East Indian families that are
+quite harmonious, but those now in question are the ordinary varieties
+of so-called Ghent Azaleas, and the hardy hybrid Rhododendrons. In the
+case of small gardens, where there is only room for one bed or clump of
+peat plants, it would be better to have a group of either one or the
+other of these plants, rather than spoil the effect by the inharmonious
+mixture of both.</p>
+
+<p>I always think it desirable to group together flowers that bloom at the
+same time. It is impossible, and even undesirable, to have a garden in
+blossom all over, and groups of flower-beauty are all the more enjoyable
+for being more or less isolated by stretches of intervening greenery. As
+one lovely group for May I recommend Moutan Pæony and <i>Clematis
+montana</i>, the Clematis on a wall low enough to let its wreaths of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_071" name="Page_071"></a>[071]</span>bloom show near the Pæony. The old Guelder Rose or Snowball-tree
+is beautiful anywhere, but I think it best of all on the cold side of a
+wall. Of course it is perfectly hardy, and a bush of strong, sturdy
+growth, and has no need of the wall either for support or for shelter;
+but I am for clothing the garden walls with all the prettiest things
+they can wear, and no shrub I know makes a better show. Moreover, as
+there is necessarily less wood in a flat wall tree than in a round bush,
+and as the front shoots must be pruned close back, it follows that much
+more strength is thrown into the remaining wood, and the blooms are much
+larger.</p>
+
+<p>I have a north wall eleven feet high, with a Guelder Rose on each side
+of a doorway, and a <i>Clematis montana</i> that is trained on the top of the
+whole. The two flower at the same time, their growths mingling in
+friendly fashion, while their unlikeness of habit makes the
+companionship all the more interesting. The Guelder Rose is a
+stiff-wooded thing, the character of its main stems being a kind of
+stark uprightness, though the great white balls hang out with a certain
+freedom from the newly-grown shoots. The Clematis meets it with an
+exactly opposite way of growth, swinging down its great swags of
+many-flowered garland masses into the head of its companion, with here
+and there a single flowering streamer making a tiny wreath on its own
+account.</p>
+
+<p>On the southern sides of the same gateway are two large bushes of the
+Mexican Orange-flower (<i>Choisya</i> <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_072" name="Page_072"></a>[072]</span><i>ternata</i>), loaded with its
+orange-like bloom. Buttresses flank the doorway on this side, dying away
+into the general thickness of the wall above the arch by a kind of
+roofing of broad flat stones that lay back at an easy pitch. In mossy
+hollows at their joints and angles, some tufts of Thrift and of little
+Rock Pinks have found a home, and show as tenderly-coloured tufts of
+rather dull pink bloom. Above all is the same white Clematis, some of
+its abundant growth having been trained over the south side, so that
+this one plant plays a somewhat important part in two garden-scenes.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/72top_a.jpg" width="400" height="295" alt="South side of Door, with Clematis Montana and Choisya." title="" />
+<span class="caption">South side of Door, with Clematis Montana and Choisya.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image72" name="image72"></a>
+<img src="images/72bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="299" alt="North side of the same Door, with Clematis Montana and
+Guelder-Rose." title="" />
+<span class="caption">North side of the same Door, with Clematis Montana and
+Guelder-Rose.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Through the gateway again, beyond the wall northward and partly within
+its shade, is a portion of ground devoted to Pæonies, in shape a long
+triangle, whose proportion in length is about thrice its breadth
+measured at the widest end. A low cross-wall, five feet high, divides it
+nearly in half near the Guelder Roses, and it is walled again on the
+other long side of the triangle by a rough structure of stone and earth,
+which, in compliment to its appearance, we call the Old Wall, of which I
+shall have something to say later. Thus the Pæonies are protected all
+round, for they like a sheltered place, and the Moutans do best with
+even a little passing shade at some time of the day. Moutan is the
+Chinese name for Tree Pæony. For an immense hardy flower of beautiful
+colouring what can equal the salmon-rose Moutan Reine Elizabeth? Among
+the others that I have, those that give me most pleasure are Baronne
+d'Alès <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_073" name="Page_073"></a>[073]</span>and Comtesse de Tuder, both pinks of a delightful
+quality, and a lovely white called Bijou de Chusan. The Tree Pæonies are
+also beautiful in leaf; the individual leaves are large and important,
+and so carried that they are well displayed. Their colour is peculiar,
+being bluish, but pervaded with a suspicion of pink or pinkish-bronze,
+sometimes of a metallic quality that faintly recalls some of the
+variously-coloured alloys of metal that the Japanese bronze-workers make
+and use with such consummate skill.</p>
+
+<p>It is a matter of regret that varieties of the better kinds of Moutans
+are not generally grown on their own roots, and still more so that the
+stock in common use should not even be the type Tree Pæony, but one of
+the herbaceous kinds, so that we have plants of a hard-wooded shrub
+worked on a thing as soft as a Dahlia root. This is probably the reason
+why they are so difficult to establish, and so slow to grow, especially
+on light soils, even when their beds have been made deep and liberally
+enriched with what one judges to be the most gratifying comfort. Every
+now and then, just before blooming time, a plant goes off all at once,
+smitten with sudden death. At the time of making my collection I was
+unable to visit the French nurseries where these plants are so admirably
+grown, and whence most of the best kinds have come. I had to choose them
+by the catalogue description&mdash;always an unsatisfactory way to any one
+with a keen eye for colour, although in this matter the compilers of
+foreign catalogues are <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_074" name="Page_074"></a>[074]</span>certainly less vague than those of our
+own. Many of the plants therefore had to be shifted into better groups
+for colour after their first blooming, a matter the more to be regretted
+as Pæonies dislike being moved.</p>
+
+<p>The other half of the triangular bit of Pæony ground&mdash;the pointed
+end&mdash;is given to the kinds I like best of the large June-flowered
+Pæonies, the garden varieties of the Siberian <i>P. albiflora</i>, popularly
+known as Chinese Pæonies. Though among these, as is the case with all
+the kinds, there is a preponderance of pink or rose-crimson colouring of
+a decidedly rank quality, yet the number of varieties is so great, that
+among the minority of really good colouring there are plenty to choose
+from, including a good number of beautiful whites and whites tinged with
+yellow. Of those I have, the kinds I like best are&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="indent">
+<p>Hypatia, pink.</p>
+<p>Madame Benare, salmon-rose.</p>
+<p>The Queen, pale salmon-rose.</p>
+<p>Léonie, salmon-rose.</p>
+<p>Virginie, warm white.</p>
+<p>Solfaterre, pale yellow.</p>
+<p>Edouard André, deep claret.</p>
+<p>Madame Calot, flesh pink.</p>
+<p>Madame Bréon.</p>
+<p>Alba sulfurea.</p>
+<p>Triomphans gandavensis.</p>
+<p>Carnea elegans (Guerin).</p>
+<p>Curiosa, pink and blush.</p>
+<p>Prince Pierre Galitzin, blush.</p>
+<p>Eugenie Verdier, pale pink.</p>
+<p>Elegans superbissima, yellowish-white.</p>
+<p>Virgo Maria, white.</p>
+<p>Philomèle, blush.</p>
+<p>Madame Dhour, rose.</p>
+<p>Duchesse de Nemours, yellow-white.</p>
+<p>Faust.</p>
+<p>Belle Douaisienne.</p>
+<p>Jeanne d'Arc.</p>
+<p>Marie Lemoine.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Many of the lovely flowers in this class have a rather <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_075" name="Page_075"></a>[075]</span>strong,
+sweet smell, something like a mixture of the scents of Rose and Tulip.</p>
+
+<p>Then there are the old garden Pæonies, the double varieties of <i>P.
+officinalis</i>. They are in three distinct colourings&mdash;full rich crimson,
+crimson-rose, and pale pink changing to dull white. These are the
+earliest to flower, and with them it is convenient, from the garden
+point of view, to class some of the desirable species.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago my friend Mr. Barr kindly gave me a set of the Pæony
+species as grown by him. I wished to have them, not for the sake of
+making a collection, but in order to see which were the ones I should
+like best to grow as garden flowers. In due time they grew into strong
+plants and flowered. A good many had to be condemned because of the raw
+magenta colour of the bloom, one or two only that had this defect being
+reprieved on account of their handsome foliage and habit. Prominent
+among these was <i>P. decora</i>, with bluish foliage handsomely displayed,
+the whole plant looking strong and neat and well-dressed. Others whose
+flower-colour I cannot commend, but that seemed worth growing on account
+of their rich masses of handsome foliage, are <i>P. triternata</i> and <i>P.
+Broteri</i>. Though small in size, the light red flower of <i>P. lobata</i> is
+of a beautiful colour. <i>P. tenuifolia</i>, in both single and double form,
+is an old garden favourite. <i>P. Wittmanniana</i>, with its yellow-green
+leaves and tender yellow flower, is a gem; but it is rather rare, and
+probably uncertain, for mine, alas! <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_076" name="Page_076"></a>[076]</span>had no sooner grown into a
+fine clump than it suddenly died.</p>
+
+<p>All Pæonies are strong feeders. Their beds should be deeply and richly
+prepared, and in later years they are grateful for liberal gifts of
+manure, both as surface dressings and waterings.</p>
+
+<p>Friends often ask me vaguely about Pæonies, and when I say, "What kind
+of Pæonies?" they have not the least idea.</p>
+
+<p>Broadly, and for garden purposes, one may put them into three classes&mdash;</p>
+<div class="indent">
+<p>1. Tree Pæonies (<i>P. moutan</i>), shrubby, flowering in May.</p>
+
+<p>2. Chinese Pæonies (<i>P. albiflora</i>), herbaceous, flowering in June.</p>
+
+<p>3. Old garden Pæonies (<i>P. officinalis</i>), herbaceous, including some
+other herbaceous species.</p></div>
+
+<p>I find it convenient to grow Pæony species and Caulescent (Lent)
+Hellebores together. They are in a wide border on the north side of the
+high wall and partly shaded by it. They are agreed in their liking for
+deeply-worked ground with an admixture of loam and lime, for shelter,
+and for rich feeding; and the Pæony clumps, set, as it were, in picture
+frames of the lower-growing Hellebores, are seen to all the more
+advantage.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_077" name="Page_077"></a>[077]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h4>JUNE</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>The gladness of June &mdash; The time of Roses &mdash; Garden Roses &mdash;
+Reine Blanche &mdash; The old white Rose &mdash; Old garden Roses as
+standards &mdash; Climbing and rambling Roses &mdash; Scotch Briars &mdash;
+Hybrid Perpetuals a difficulty &mdash; Tea Roses &mdash; Pruning &mdash; Sweet
+Peas, autumn sown &mdash; Elder-trees &mdash; Virginian Cowslip &mdash;
+Dividing spring-blooming plants &mdash; Two best Mulleins &mdash; White
+French Willow &mdash; Bracken.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />What is one to say about June&mdash;the time of perfect young summer, the
+fulfilment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign
+to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade? For my own
+part I wander up into the wood and say, "June is here&mdash;June is here;
+thank God for lovely June!" The soft cooing of the wood-dove, the glad
+song of many birds, the flitting of butterflies, the hum of all the
+little winged people among the branches, the sweet earth-scents&mdash;all
+seem to say the same, with an endless reiteration, never wearying
+because so gladsome. It is the offering of the Hymn of Praise! The
+lizards run in and out of the heathy tufts in the hot sunshine, and as
+the long day darkens the night-jar trolls out his strange song, so
+welcome because it is the prelude <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_078" name="Page_078"></a>[078]</span>to the perfect summer night;
+here and there a glowworm shows its little lamp. June is here&mdash;June is
+here; thank God for lovely June!</p>
+
+<p>And June is the time of Roses. I have great delight in the best of the
+old garden Roses; the Provence (Cabbage Rose), sweetest of all sweets,
+and the Moss Rose, its crested variety; the early Damask, and its red
+and white striped kind; the old, nearly single, Reine Blanche. I do not
+know the origin of this charming Rose, but by its appearance it should
+be related to the Damask. A good many years ago I came upon it in a
+cottage garden in Sussex, and thought I had found a white Damask. The
+white is a creamy white, the outsides of the outer petals are stained
+with red, first showing clearly in the bud. The scent is delicate and
+delightful, with a faint suspicion of Magnolia. A few years ago this
+pretty old Rose found its way to one of the meetings of the Royal
+Horticultural Society, where it gained much praise. It was there that I
+recognised my old friend, and learned its name.</p>
+
+<p>I am fond of the old <i>Rosa alba</i>, both single and double, and its
+daughter, Maiden's Blush. How seldom one sees these Roses except in
+cottage gardens; but what good taste it shows on the cottager's part,
+for what Rose is so perfectly at home upon the modest little wayside
+porch?</p>
+
+<p>I have also learnt from cottage gardens how pretty are some of the old
+Roses grown as standards. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_079" name="Page_079"></a>[079]</span>picture of my neighbour, Mrs.
+Edgeler, picking me a bunch from her bush, shows how freely they flower,
+and what fine standards they make. I have taken the hint, and have now
+some big round-headed standards, the heads a yard through, of the lovely
+Celeste and of Madame Plantier, that are worth looking at, though one of
+them is rather badly-shaped this year, for my handsome Jack (donkey) ate
+one side of it when he was waiting outside the studio door, while his
+cart-load of logs for the ingle fire was being unloaded.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/77_a.jpg" width="400" height="263" alt="Free Cluster-Rose as standard in a Cottage Garden." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Free Cluster-Rose as standard in a Cottage Garden.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>What a fine thing, among the cluster Roses, is the old Dundee Rambler! I
+trained one to go up a rather upright green Holly about twenty-five feet
+high, and now it has rushed up and tumbles out at the top and sides in
+masses of its pretty bloom. It is just as good grown as a "fountain,"
+giving it a free space where it can spread at will with no training or
+support whatever. These two ways I think are much the best for growing
+the free, rambling Roses. In the case of the fountain, the branches arch
+over and display the flowers to perfection; if you tie your Rose up to a
+tall post or train it over an arch or <i>pergola</i>, the birds flying
+overhead have the best of the show. The Garland Rose, another old sort,
+is just as suitable for this kind of growth as Dundee Rambler, and the
+individual flowers, of a tender blush-colour, changing to white, are
+even more delicate and pretty.</p>
+
+<p>The newer Crimson Rambler is a noble plant for the same use, in sunlight
+gorgeous of bloom, and always <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_080" name="Page_080"></a>[080]</span>brilliant with its glossy
+bright-green foliage. Of the many good plants from Japan, this is the
+best that has reached us of late years. The Himalayan <i>Rosa Brunonii</i> is
+loaded with its clusters of milk-white bloom, that are so perfectly in
+harmony with its very long, almost blue leaves. But of all the
+free-growing Roses, the most remarkable for rampant growth is <i>R.
+polyantha</i>. One of the bushes in this garden covers a space thirty-four
+feet across&mdash;more than a hundred feet round. It forms a great
+fountain-like mass, covered with myriads of its small white flowers,
+whose scent is carried a considerable distance. Directly the flower is
+over it throws up rods of young growth eighteen to twenty feet long; as
+they mature they arch over, and next year their many short lateral
+shoots will be smothered with bloom.</p>
+
+<p>Two other Roses of free growth are also great favourites&mdash;Madame Alfred
+Carrière, with long-stalked loose white flowers, and Emilie Plantier. I
+have them on an east fence, where they yield a large quantity of bloom
+for cutting; indeed, they have been so useful in this way that I have
+planted several more, but this time for training down to an oak trellis,
+like the one that supports the row of Bouquet d'Or, in order to bring
+the flowers within easier reach.</p>
+
+<p>Now we look for the bloom of the Burnet Rose (<i>Rosa spinosissima</i>), a
+lovely native plant, and its garden varieties, the Scotch Briars. The
+wild plant is widely distributed in England, though somewhat local. It
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_081" name="Page_081"></a>[081]</span>grows on moors in Scotland, and on Beachy Head in Sussex, and
+near Tenby in South Wales, favouring wild places within smell of the
+sea. The rather dusky foliage sets off the lemon-white of the wild, and
+the clear white, pink, rose, and pale yellow of the double garden kinds.
+The hips are large and handsome, black and glossy, and the whole plant
+in late autumn assumes a fine bronzy colouring between ashy black and
+dusky red. Other small old garden Roses are coming into bloom. One of
+the most desirable, and very frequent in this district, is <i>Rosa
+lucida</i>, with red stems, highly-polished leaves, and single, fragrant
+flowers of pure rosy-pink colour. The leaves turn a brilliant yellow in
+autumn, and after they have fallen the bushes are still bright with the
+coloured stems and the large clusters of bright-red hips. It is the St.
+Mark's Rose of Venice, where it is usually in flower on St. Mark's Day,
+April 25th. The double variety is the old <i>Rose d'amour</i>, now rare in
+gardens; its half-expanded bud is perhaps the most daintily beautiful
+thing that any Rose can show.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 270px;">
+<img src="images/81_a.jpg" width="270" height="400" alt="Double White Scotch Briar." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Double White Scotch Briar.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>After many years of fruitless effort I have to allow that I am beaten in
+the attempt to grow the Grand Roses in the Hybrid Perpetual class. They
+plainly show their dislike to our dry hill, even when their beds are as
+well enriched as I can contrive or afford to make them. The rich loam
+that they love has to come many miles from the Weald by hilly roads in
+four-horse waggons, and the haulage is so costly that <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_082" name="Page_082"></a>[082]</span>when it
+arrives I feel like distributing it with a spoon rather than with the
+spade. Moreover, even if a bed is filled with the precious loam, unless
+constantly watered the plants seem to feel and resent the two hundred
+feet of dry sand and rock that is under them before any moister stratum
+is reached.</p>
+
+<p>But the Tea Roses are more accommodating, and do fairly well, though, of
+course, not so well as in a stiffer soil. If I were planting again I
+should grow a still larger proportion of the kinds I have now found to
+do best. Far beyond all others is Madame Lambard, good alike early and
+late, and beautiful at all times. In this garden it yields quite three
+times as much bloom as any other; nothing else can approach it either
+for beauty or bounty. Viscountess Folkestone, not properly a Tea, but
+classed among Hybrid Noisettes, is also free and beautiful and
+long-enduring; and Papa Gontier, so like a deeper-coloured Lambard, is
+another favourite. Bouquet d'Or is here the strongest of the Dijon Teas.
+I grow it in several positions, but most conveniently on a strong bit of
+oak post and rail trellis, keeping the long growths tied down, and every
+two years cutting the oldest wood right out. It is well to remember that
+the tying or pegging down of Roses always makes them bloom better: every
+joint from end to end wants to make a good Rose; if the shoots are more
+upright, the blooming strength goes more to the top.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/82top_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="Part of a Bush of Rosa Polyantha." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Part of a Bush of Rosa Polyantha.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image82" name="image82"></a>
+<img src="images/82bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="296" alt="Garland-Rose, showing Natural Way of Growth." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Garland-Rose, showing Natural Way of Growth.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The pruning of Tea Roses is quite different from the pruning required
+for the Hybrid Perpetuals. In <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_083" name="Page_083"></a>[083]</span>these the last year's growth is
+cut back in March to within two to five eyes from where it leaves the
+main branch, according to the strength of the kind. This must not be
+done with the Teas. With these the oldest wood is cut right out from the
+base, and the blooming shoots left full length. But it is well, towards
+the end of July or beginning of August, to cut back the ends of soft
+summer shoots in order to give them a chance of ripening what is left.
+When an old Tea looks worn out, if cut right down in March or April it
+will often throw out vigorous young growth, and quite renew its life.</p>
+
+<p>Within the first days of June we can generally pick some Sweet Peas from
+the rows sown in the second week of September. They are very much
+stronger than those sown in spring. By November they are four inches
+high, and seem to gain strength and sturdiness during the winter; for as
+soon as spring comes they shoot up with great vigour, and we know that
+the spray used to support them must be two feet higher than for those
+that are spring-sown. The flower-stalks are a foot long, and many have
+four flowers on a stalk. They are sown in shallow trenches; in spring
+they are earthed up very slightly, but still with a little trench at the
+base of the plants. A few doses of liquid manure are a great help when
+they are getting towards blooming strength.</p>
+
+<p>I am very fond of the Elder-tree. It is a sociable sort of thing; it
+seems to like to grow near human <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_084" name="Page_084"></a>[084]</span>habitations. In my own mind it
+is certainly the tree most closely associated with the pretty old
+cottage and farm architecture of my part of the country; no bush or
+tree, not even the apple, seems to group so well or so closely with farm
+buildings. When I built a long thatched shed for the many needs of the
+garden, in the region of pits and frames, compost, rubbish and
+burn-heap, I planted Elders close to the end of the building and on one
+side of the yard. They look just right, and are, moreover, every year
+loaded with their useful fruit. This is ripe quite early in September,
+and is made into Elder wine, to be drunk hot in winter, a comfort by no
+means to be despised. My trees now give enough for my own wants, and
+there are generally a few acceptable bushels to spare for my cottage
+neighbours.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/84top_a.jpg" width="400" height="299" alt="Lilac Marie Legraye. (See page 23.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Lilac Marie Legraye. (See page <a href="#Page_023">23</a>.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image84" name="image84"></a>
+<img src="images/84bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="Flowering Elder and Path from Garden to Copse." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Flowering Elder and Path from Garden to Copse.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>About the middle of the month the Virginian Cowslip (<i>Mertensia
+virginica</i>) begins to turn yellow before dying down. Now is the time to
+look out for the seeds. A few ripen on the plant, but most of them fall
+while green, and then ripen in a few days while lying on the ground. I
+shake the seeds carefully out, and leave them lying round the
+parent-plant; a week later, when they will be ripe, they are lightly
+scratched into the ground. Some young plants of last year's growth I
+mark with a bit of stick, in case of wanting some later to plant
+elsewhere, or to send away; the plant dies away completely, leaving no
+trace above ground, so that if not marked it would be difficult to find
+what is wanted.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_085" name="Page_085"></a>[085]</span>This is also the time for pulling to pieces and replanting that
+good spring plant, the large variety of <i>Myosotis dissitiflora</i>; I
+always make sure of divisions, as seed does not come true. <i>Primula
+rosea</i> should also be divided now, and planted to grow on in a cool
+place, such as the foot of a north or east wall, or be put at once in
+its place in some cool, rather moist spot in the rock-garden.
+Two-year-old plants come up with thick clumps of matted root that is now
+useless. I cut off the whole mass of old root about an inch below the
+crown, when it can easily be divided into nice little bits for
+replanting. Many other spring-flowering plants may with advantage be
+divided now, such as Aubrietia, Arabis, Auricula, Tiarella, and
+Saxifrage.</p>
+
+<p>The young Primrose plants, sown in March, have been planted out in their
+special garden, and are looking well after some genial rain.</p>
+
+<p>The great branching Mullein, <i>Verbascum olympicum</i>, is just going out of
+bloom, after making a brilliant display for a fortnight. It is followed
+by the other of the most useful tall, yellow-flowered kinds, <i>V.
+phlomoides</i>. Both are seen at their best either quite early in the
+morning, or in the evening, or in half-shade, as, like all their kind,
+they do not expand their bloom in bright sunshine. Both are excellent
+plants on poor soils. <i>V. olympicum</i>, though classed as a biennial, does
+not come to flowering strength till it is three or four years old; but
+meanwhile the foliage is so handsome that even if there were no flower
+it would be a worthy <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_086" name="Page_086"></a>[086]</span>garden plant. It does well in any waste
+spaces of poor soil, where, by having plants of all ages, there will be
+some to flower every year. The Mullein moth is sure to find them out,
+and it behoves the careful gardener to look for and destroy the
+caterpillars, or he may some day find, instead of his stately Mulleins,
+tall stems only clothed with unsightly grey rags. The caterpillars are
+easily caught when quite small or when rather large; but midway in their
+growth, when three-quarters of an inch long, they are wary, and at the
+approach of the avenging gardener they will give a sudden wriggling
+jump, and roll down into the lower depths of the large foliage, where
+they are difficult to find. But by going round the plants twice a day
+for about a week they can all be discovered.</p>
+
+<p>The white variety of the French Willow (<i>Epilobium angustifolium</i>) is a
+pretty plant in the edges of the copse, good both in sun and shade, and
+flourishing in any poor soil. In better ground it grows too rank,
+running quickly at the root and invading all its neighbours, so that it
+should be planted with great caution; but when grown on poor ground it
+flowers at from two feet to four feet high, and its whole aspect is
+improved by the proportional amount of flower becoming much larger.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of June the bracken that covers the greater part of the
+ground of the copse is in full beauty. No other manner of undergrowth
+gives to woodland in so great a degree the true forest-like
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_087" name="Page_087"></a>[087]</span>character. This most ancient plant speaks of the old, untouched
+land of which large stretches still remain in the south of England&mdash;land
+too poor to have been worth cultivating, and that has therefore for
+centuries endured human contempt. In the early part of the present
+century, William Cobbett, in his delightful book, "Rural Rides,"
+speaking of the heathy headlands and vast hollow of Hindhead, in Surrey,
+calls it "certainly the most villainous spot God ever made." This gives
+expression to his view, as farmer and political economist, of such
+places as were incapable of cultivation, and of the general feeling of
+the time about lonely roads in waste places, as the fields for the
+lawless labours of smuggler and highwayman. Now such tracts of natural
+wild beauty, clothed with stretches of Heath and Fern and Whortleberry,
+with beds of Sphagnum Moss, and little natural wild gardens of curious
+and beautiful sub-aquatic plants in the marshy hollows and undrained
+wastes, are treasured as such places deserve to be, especially when they
+still remain within fifty miles of a vast city. The height to which the
+bracken grows is a sure guide to the depth of soil. On the poorest,
+thinnest ground it only reaches a foot or two; but in hollow places
+where leaf-mould accumulates and surface soil has washed in and made a
+better depth, it grows from six feet to eight feet high, and when
+straggling up through bushes to get to the light a frond will sometimes
+measure as much as twelve feet. The old country people who have always
+lived <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_088" name="Page_088"></a>[088]</span>on the same poor land say, "Where the farn grows tall
+anything will grow"; but that only means that there the ground is
+somewhat better and capable of cultivation, as its presence is a sure
+indication of a sandy soil. The timber-merchants are shy of buying oak
+trees felled from among it, the timber of trees grown on the wealden
+clay being so much better.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_089" name="Page_089"></a>[089]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h4>JULY</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Scarcity of flowers &mdash; Delphiniums &mdash; Yuccas &mdash; Cottager's way
+of protecting tender plants &mdash; Alströmerias &mdash; Carnations &mdash;
+Gypsophila &mdash; <i>Lilium giganteum</i> &mdash; Cutting fern-pegs.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />After the wealth of bloom of June, there appear to be but few flowers in
+the garden; there seems to be a time of comparative emptiness between
+the earlier flowers and those of autumn. It is true that in the early
+days of July we have Delphiniums, the grandest blues of the flower year.
+They are in two main groups in the flower border, one of them nearly all
+of the palest kind&mdash;not a solid clump, but with a thicker nucleus,
+thinning away for several yards right and left. Only white and
+pale-yellow flowers are grouped with this, and pale, fresh-looking
+foliage of maize and Funkia. The other group is at some distance, at the
+extreme western end. This is of the full and deeper blues, following a
+clump of Yuccas, and grouped about with things of important silvery
+foliage, such <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'at'">as</ins> Globe Artichoke and Silver Thistle (<i>Eryngium</i>). I have
+found it satisfactory to grow Delphiniums from seed, choosing the fine
+strong "Cantab" as the seed-parent, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_090" name="Page_090"></a>[090]</span>because the flowers were of
+a medium colour&mdash;scarcely so light as the name would imply&mdash;and because
+of its vigorous habit and well-shaped spike. It produced flowers of all
+shades of blue, and from these were derived nearly all I have in the
+border. I found them better for the purpose in many cases than the named
+kinds of which I had a fair collection.</p>
+
+<p>The seedlings were well grown for two years in nursery lines, worthless
+ones being taken out as soon as they showed their character. There is
+one common defect that I cannot endure&mdash;an interrupted spike, when the
+flowers, having filled a good bit of the spike, leave off, leaving a
+space of bare stem, and then go on again. If this habit proves to be
+persistent after the two years' trial, the plant is condemned. For my
+liking the spike must be well filled, but not overcrowded. Many of the
+show kinds are too full for beauty; the shape of the individual flower
+is lost. Some of the double ones are handsome, but in these the flower
+takes another shape, becoming more rosette-like, and thereby loses its
+original character. Some are of mixed colouring, a shade of lilac-pink
+sliding through pale blue. It is very beautiful in some cases, the
+respective tints remaining as clear as in an opal, but in many it only
+muddles the flower and makes it ineffective.</p>
+
+<p>Delphiniums are greedy feeders, and pay for rich cultivation and for
+liberal manurial mulches and waterings. In a hot summer, if not well
+cared for, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_091" name="Page_091"></a>[091]</span>they get stunted and are miserable objects, the
+flower distorted and cramped into a clumsy-looking, elongated mop-head.</p>
+
+<p>Though weak in growth the old <i>Delphinium Belladonna</i> has so lovely a
+quality of colour that it is quite indispensable; the feeble stem should
+be carefully and unobtrusively staked for the better display of its
+incomparable blue.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the Yuccas will bloom before the end of the month. I have them
+in bold patches the whole fifteen-feet depth of the border at the
+extreme ends, and on each side of the pathway, where, passing from the
+lawn to the Pæony ground, it cuts across the border to go through the
+arched gateway. The kinds of Yucca are <i>gloriosa</i>, <i>recurva</i>,
+<i>flaccida</i>, and <i>filamentosa</i>. They are good to look at at all times of
+the year because of their grand strong foliage, and are the glory of the
+garden when in flower. One of the <i>gloriosa</i> threw up a stout
+flower-spike in January. I had thought of protecting and roofing the
+spike, in the hope of carrying it safely through till spring, but
+meanwhile there came a damp day and a frosty night, and when I saw it
+again it was spoilt. The <i>Yucca filamentosa</i> that I have I was told by a
+trusty botanist was the true plant, but rather tender, the one commonly
+called by that name being something else. I found it in a cottage
+garden, where I learnt a useful lesson in protecting plants, namely, the
+use of thickly-cut peaty sods. The goodwife had noticed that the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_092" name="Page_092"></a>[092]</span>peaty ground of the adjoining common, covered with heath and
+gorse and mossy grass, resisted frost much better than the garden or
+meadow, and it had been her practice for many years to get some thick
+dry sods with the heath left on and to pack them close round to protect
+tender plants. In this way she had preserved her Fuchsias of greenhouse
+kinds, and Calceolarias, and the Yucca in question.</p>
+
+<p>The most brilliant mass of flower in early July is given by the beds of
+<i>Alströmeria aurantiaca</i>; of this we have three distinct varieties, all
+desirable. There is a four feet wide bed, some forty feet long, of the
+kind most common in gardens, and at a distance from it a group grown
+from selected seed of a paler colour; seedlings of this remain true to
+colour, or, as gardeners say, the variety is "fixed." The third sort is
+from a good old garden in Ireland, larger in every way than the type,
+with petals of great width, and extremely rich in colour. <i>Alströmeria
+chilense</i> is an equally good plant, and beds of it are beautiful in
+their varied colourings, all beautifully harmonious, and ranging through
+nearly the same tints as hardy Azaleas. These are the best of the
+Alströmerias for ordinary garden culture; they do well in warm,
+sheltered places in the poorest soil, but the soil must be deep, for the
+bunches of tender, fleshy roots go far down. The roots are extremely
+brittle, and must be carefully handled. Alströmerias are easily raised
+from seed, but when the seedlings are planted out the crowns should be
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_093" name="Page_093"></a>[093]</span>quite four inches under the surface, and have a thick bed of
+leaves or some other mild mulching material over them in winter to
+protect them from frost, for they are Chilian plants, and demand and
+deserve a little surface comfort to carry them safely through the
+average English winter.</p>
+
+<p>Sea-holly (<i>Eryngium</i>) is another family of July-flowering plants that
+does well on poor, sandy soils that have been deeply stirred. Of these
+the more generally useful is <i>E. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Olivieranum'">Oliverianum</ins></i>, the <i>E. amethystinum</i> of
+nurserymen, but so named in error, the true plant being rare and
+scarcely known in gardens. The whole plant has an admirable structure of
+a dry and nervous quality, with a metallic colouring and dull lustre
+that are in strong contrast to softer types of vegetation. The
+black-coated roots go down straight and deep, and enable it to withstand
+almost any drought. Equalling it in beauty is <i>E. giganteum</i>, the Silver
+Thistle, of the same metallic texture, but whitish and almost silvery.
+This is a biennial, and should be sown every year. A more lowly plant,
+but hardly less beautiful, is the wild Sea-holly of our coasts (<i>E.
+maritimum</i>), with leaves almost blue, and a handsome tuft of flower
+nearly matching them in colour. It occurs on wind-blown sandhills, but
+is worth a place in any garden. It comes up rather late, but endures,
+apparently unchanged, except for the bloom, throughout the late summer
+and autumn.</p>
+
+<p>But the flower of this month that has the firmest <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_094" name="Page_094"></a>[094]</span>hold of the
+gardener's heart is the Carnation&mdash;the Clove Gilliflower of our
+ancestors. Why the good old name "Gilliflower" has gone out of use it is
+impossible to say, for certainly the popularity of the flower has never
+waned. Indeed, in the seventeenth century it seems that it was the
+best-loved flower of all in England; for John Parkinson, perhaps our
+earliest writer on garden plants, devotes to it a whole chapter in his
+"Paradisus Terrestris," a distinction shared by no other flower. He
+describes no less than fifty kinds, a few of which are still to be
+recognised, though some are lost. For instance, what has become of the
+"<i>great gray Hulo</i>" which he describes as a plant of the largest and
+strongest habit? The "gray" in this must refer to the colour of the
+leaf, as he says the flower is red; but there is also a variety called
+the "<i>blew Hulo</i>," with flowers of a "purplish murrey" colouring,
+answering to the slate colour that we know as of not unfrequent
+occurrence. The branch of the family that we still cultivate as "Painted
+Lady" is named by him "Dainty Lady," the present name being no doubt an
+accidental and regrettable corruption. But though some of the older
+sorts may be lost, we have such a wealth of good known kinds that this
+need hardly be a matter of regret. The old red Clove always holds its
+own for hardiness, beauty, and perfume; its newer and dwarfer variety,
+Paul Engleheart, is quite indispensable, while the beautiful
+salmon-coloured Raby is perhaps the most useful of all, with its hardy
+constitution and great <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_095" name="Page_095"></a>[095]</span>quantity of bloom. But it is difficult
+to grow Carnations on our very poor soil; even when it is carefully
+prepared they still feel its starving and drying influence, and show
+their distaste by unusual shortness of life.</p>
+
+<p><i>Gypsophila paniculata</i> is one of the most useful plants of this time of
+year; its delicate masses of bloom are like clouds of flowery mist
+settled down upon the flower borders. Shooting up behind and among it is
+a tall, salmon-coloured Gladiolus, a telling contrast both in form and
+manner of inflorescence. Nothing in the garden has been more
+satisfactory and useful than a hedge of the white everlasting Pea. The
+thick, black roots that go down straight and deep have been undisturbed
+for some years, and the plants yield a harvest of strong white bloom for
+cutting that always seems inexhaustible. They are staked with stiff,
+branching spray, thrust into the ground diagonally, and not reaching up
+too high. This supports the heavy mass of growth without encumbering the
+upper blooming part.</p>
+
+<p>Hydrangeas are well in flower at the foot of a warm wall, and in the
+same position are spreading masses of the beautiful <i>Clematis
+Davidiana</i>, a herbaceous kind, with large, somewhat vine-like leaves,
+and flowers of a pale-blue colour of a delicate and uncommon quality.</p>
+
+<p>The blooming of the <i>Lilium giganteum</i> is one of the great flower events
+of the year. It is planted in rather large straggling groups just within
+the fringe of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_096" name="Page_096"></a>[096]</span>copse. In March the bulbs, which are only
+just underground, thrust their sharply-pointed bottle-green tips out of
+the earth. These soon expand into heart-shaped leaves, looking much like
+Arum foliage of the largest size, and of a bright-green colour and
+glistening surface. The groups are so placed that they never see the
+morning sun. They require a slight sheltering of fir-bough, or anything
+suitable, till the third week of May, to protect the young leaves from
+the late frosts. In June the flower-stem shoots up straight and tall,
+like a vigorous young green-stemmed tree. If the bulb is strong and the
+conditions suitable, it will attain a height of over eleven feet, but
+among the flowering bulbs of a group there are sure to be some of
+various heights from differently sized bulbs; those whose stature is
+about ten feet are perhaps the handsomest. The upper part of the stem
+bears the gracefully drooping great white Lily flowers, each bloom some
+ten inches long, greenish when in bud, but changing to white when fully
+developed. Inside each petal is a purplish-red stripe. In the evening
+the scent seems to pour out of the great white trumpets, and is almost
+overpowering, but gains a delicate quality by passing through the air,
+and at fifty yards away is like a faint waft of incense. In the evening
+light, when the sun is down, the great heads of white flower have a
+mysterious and impressive effect when seen at some distance through the
+wood, and by moonlight have a strangely weird dignity. The flowers only
+last a few days, but <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_097" name="Page_097"></a>[097]</span>when they are over the beauty of the
+plant is by no means gone, for the handsome leaves remain in perfection
+till the autumn, while the growing seed-pods, rising into an erect
+position, become large and rather handsome objects. The rapidity and
+vigour of the four months' growth from bulb to giant flowering plant is
+very remarkable. The stem is a hollow, fleshy tube, three inches in
+diameter at the base, and the large radiating roots are like those of a
+tree. The original bulb is, of course, gone, but when the plants that
+have flowered are taken up at the end of November, offsets are found
+clustered round the root; these are carefully detached and replanted.
+The great growth of these Lilies could not be expected to come to
+perfection in our very poor, shallow soil, for doubtless in their
+mountain home in the Eastern Himalayas they grow in deep beds of cool
+vegetable earth. Here, therefore, their beds are deeply excavated, and
+filled to within a foot of the top with any of the vegetable rubbish of
+which only too much accumulates in the late autumn. Holes twelve feet
+across and three feet deep are convenient graves for frozen Dahlia-tops
+and half-hardy Annuals; a quantity of such material chopped up and
+tramped down close forms a cool subsoil that will comfort the Lily bulbs
+for many a year. The upper foot of soil is of good compost, and when the
+young bulbs are planted, the whole is covered with some inches of dead
+leaves that join in with the natural woodland carpet.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 265px;"><a id="image96" name="image96"></a>
+<img src="images/96_a.jpg" width="265" height="400" alt="The Giant Lily." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Giant Lily.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the end of July we have some of the hottest of <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_098" name="Page_098"></a>[098]</span>the summer
+days, only beginning to cool between six and seven in the evening. One
+or two evenings I go to the upper part of the wood to cut some fern-pegs
+for pegging Carnation layers, armed with fag-hook and knife and rubber,
+and a low rush-bottomed stool to sit on. The rubber is the stone for
+sharpening the knife&mdash;a long stone of coarse sandstone grit, such as is
+used for scythes. Whenever I am at work with a knife there is sure to be
+a rubber not far off, for a blunt knife I cannot endure, so there is a
+stone in each department of the garden sheds, and a whole series in the
+workshop, and one or two to spare to take on outside jobs. The Bracken
+has to be cut with a light hand, as the side-shoots that will make the
+hook of the peg are easily broken just at the important joint. The
+fronds are of all sizes, from two to eight feet long; but the best for
+pegs are the moderate-sized, that have not been weakened by growing too
+close together. Where they are crowded the main stalk is thick, but the
+side ones are thin and weak; whereas, where they get light and air the
+side branches are carried on stouter ribs, and make stronger and
+better-balanced pegs. The cut fern is lightly laid in a long ridge with
+the ends all one way, and the operator sits at the stalk end of the
+ridge, a nice cool shady place having been chosen. Four cuts with the
+knife make a peg, and each frond makes three pegs in about fifteen
+seconds. With the fronds laid straight and handy it goes almost
+rhythmically, then each group of three pegs is thrown into <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_099" name="Page_099"></a>[099]</span>the
+basket, where they clash on to the others with a hard ringing sound. In
+about four days the pegs dry to a surprising hardness; they are better
+than wooden ones, and easier and quicker to make.</p>
+
+<p>People who are not used to handling Bracken should be careful how they
+cut a frond with a knife; they are almost sure to get a nasty little cut
+on the second joint of the first finger of the right hand&mdash;not from the
+knife, but from the cut edge of the fern. The stalk has a silicious
+coating, that leaves a sharp edge like a thin flake of glass when cut
+diagonally with a sharp knife; they should also beware how they pick or
+pull off a mature frond, for even if the part of the stalk laid hold of
+is bruised and twisted, some of the glassy structure holds together and
+is likely to wound the hand.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100" name="Page_100"></a>[100]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h4>AUGUST</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Leycesteria &mdash; Early recollections &mdash; Bank of choice shrubs &mdash;
+Bank of Briar Roses &mdash; Hollyhocks &mdash; Lavender &mdash; Lilies &mdash;
+Bracken and Heaths &mdash; The Fern-walk &mdash; Late-blooming
+rock-plants &mdash; Autumn flowers &mdash; Tea Roses &mdash; Fruit of <i>Rosa
+rugosa</i> &mdash; Fungi &mdash; Chantarelle.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br /><i>Leycesteria formosa</i> is a soft-wooded shrub, whose beauty, without
+being showy, is full of charm and refinement. I remember delighting in
+it in the shrub-wilderness of the old home, where I first learnt to know
+and love many a good bush and tree long before I knew their names. There
+were towering Rhododendrons (all <i>ponticum</i>) and <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Ailantus'">Ailanthus</ins> and Hickory
+and Magnolias, and then Spiræa and Snowball tree and tall yellow Azalea,
+and Buttercup bush and shrubby Andromedas, and in some of the clumps
+tall Cypresses and the pretty cut-leaved Beech, and in the edges of
+others some of the good old garden Roses, double Cinnamon and <i>R.
+lucida</i>, and Damask and Provence, Moss-rose and Sweetbriar, besides
+tall-grown Lilacs and Syringa. It was all rather overgrown, and perhaps
+all the prettier, and some of the wide grassy ways were quite shady in
+summer. And I look back across the years and think <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_101" name="Page_101"></a>[101]</span>what a
+fine lesson-book it was to a rather solitary child; and when I came to
+plant my own shrub clump I thought I would put rather near together some
+of the old favourites, so here again we come back to Leycesteria, put
+rather in a place of honour, and near it Buttercup bush and Andromeda
+and Magnolias and old garden Roses.</p>
+
+<div class="floatleft" style="width: 261px">
+<img src="images/101left_a.jpg" width="261" height="350" alt="Cistus florentinus." title=""/>
+<span class="caption">Cistus florentinus.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="floatright" style="width: 257px">
+<img src="images/101right_a.jpg" width="257" height="350" alt="The Great Asphodel." title=""/>
+<span class="caption">The Great Asphodel.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="nofloat">I had no space for a shrub wilderness, but have made a large clump for
+just the things I like best, whether new friends or old. It is a long,
+low bank, five or six paces wide, highest in the middle, where the
+rather taller things are planted. These are mostly Junipers and
+Magnolias; of the Magnolias, the kinds are <i>Soulangeana</i>, <i>conspicua</i>,
+<i>purpurea</i>, and <i>stellata</i>. One end of the clump is all of peat earth;
+here are Andromedas, Skimmeas, and on the cooler side the broad-leaved
+Gale, whose crushed leaves have almost the sweetness of Myrtle. One long
+side of the clump faces south-west, the better to suit the things that
+love the sun. At the farther end is a thrifty bush of <i>Styrax japonica</i>,
+which flowers well in hot summers, but another bush under a south wall
+flowers better. It must be a lovely shrub in the south of Europe and
+perhaps in Cornwall; here the year's growth is always cut at the tip,
+but it flowers well on the older wood, and its hanging clusters of white
+bloom are lovely. At its foot, on the sunny side, are low bushy plants
+of <i>Cistus florentinus</i>. I am told that this specific name is not right;
+but the plant so commonly goes by it <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102" name="Page_102"></a>[102]</span>that it serves the purpose
+of popular identification. Then comes <i>Magnolia stellata</i>, now a
+perfectly-shaped bush five feet through, a sheet of sweet-scented bloom
+in April. Much too near it are two bushes of <i>Cistus ladaniferus</i>. They
+were put there as little plants to grow on for a year in the shelter and
+comfort of the warm bank, but were overlooked at the time they ought to
+have been shifted, and are now nearly five feet high, and are crowding
+the Magnolia. I cannot bear to take them away to waste, and they are
+much too large to transplant, so I am driving in some short stakes
+diagonally and tying them down by degrees, spreading out their branches
+between neighbouring plants. It is an upright-growing Cistus that would
+soon cover a tallish wall-space, but this time it must be content to
+grow horizontally, and I shall watch to see whether it will flower more
+freely, as so many things do when trained down.</p>
+
+<p>Next comes a patch of the handsome <i>Bambusa Ragamowski</i>, dwarf, but with
+strikingly-broad leaves of a bright yellow-green colour. It seems to be
+a slow grower, or more probably it is slow to grow at first; Bamboos
+have a good deal to do underground. It was planted six years ago, a nice
+little plant in a pot, and now is eighteen inches high and two feet
+across. Just beyond it is the Mastic bush (<i>Caryopteris mastacanthus</i>),
+a neat, grey-leaved small shrub, crowded in September with lavender-blue
+flowers, arranged in spikes something like a Veronica; the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103" name="Page_103"></a>[103]</span>whole bush is aromatic, smelling strongly like highly-refined
+turpentine. Then comes <i>Xanthoceras sorbifolia</i>, a handsome bush from
+China, of rather recent introduction, with saw-edged pinnate leaves and
+white flowers earlier in the summer, but now forming its bunches of
+fruit that might easily be mistaken for walnuts with their green shucks
+on. Here a wide bushy growth of <i>Phlomis fruticosa</i> lays out to the sun,
+covered in early summer with its stiff whorls of hooded yellow
+flowers&mdash;one of the best of plants for a sunny bank in full sun in a
+poor soil. A little farther along, and near the path, comes the neat
+little <i>Deutzia parviflora</i> and another little shrub of fairy-like
+delicacy, <i>Philadelphus microphyllus</i>. Behind them is <i>Stephanandra
+flexuosa</i>, beautiful in foliage, and two good St. John's worts,
+<i>Hypericum aureum</i> and <i>H. Moserianum</i>, and again in front a Cistus of
+low, spreading growth, <i>C. halimifolius</i>, or something near it. One or
+two favourite kinds of Tree Pæonies, comfortably sheltered by Lavender
+bushes, fill up the other end of the clump next to the Andromedas. In
+all spare spaces on the sunny side of the shrub-clump is a carpeting of
+<i>Megasea ligulata</i>, a plant that looks well all the year round, and
+gives a quantity of precious flower for cutting in March and April.</p>
+
+<p>I was nearly forgetting <i>Pavia macrostachya</i>, now well established among
+the choice shrubs. It is like a bush Horse-chestnut, but more refined,
+the white spikes standing well up above the handsome leaves.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104" name="Page_104"></a>[104]</span>On the cooler side of the clump is a longish planting of dwarf
+Andromeda, precious not only for its beauty of form and flower, but from
+the fine winter colouring of the leaves, and those two useful Spiræas,
+<i>S. Thunbergi</i>, with its countless little starry flowers, and the double
+<i>prunifolia</i>, the neat leaves of whose long sprays turn nearly scarlet
+in autumn. Then there comes a rather long stretch of <i>Artemisia
+Stelleriana</i>, a white-leaved plant much like <i>Cineraria maritima</i>,
+answering just the same purpose, but perfectly hardy. It is so much like
+the silvery <i>Cineraria</i> that it is difficult to remember that it prefers
+a cool and even partly-shaded place.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the long ridge that forms the shrub-clump is another, parallel to
+it and only separated from it by a path, also in the form of a long low
+bank. On the crown of this is the double row of cob-nuts that forms one
+side of the nut-alley. It leaves a low sunny bank that I have given to
+various Briar Roses and one or two other low, bushy kinds. Here is the
+wild Burnet Rose, with its yellow-white single flowers and large black
+hips, and its garden varieties, the Scotch Briars, double white,
+flesh-coloured, pink, rose, and yellow, and the hybrid briar, Stanwell
+Perpetual. Here also is the fine hybrid of <i>Rosa rugosa</i>, Madame George
+Bruant, and the lovely double <i>Rosa lucida</i>, and one or two kinds of
+small bush Roses from out-of-the-way gardens, and two wild Roses that
+have for me a special interest, as I collected them from
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105" name="Page_105"></a>[105]</span>their rocky home in the island of Capri. One is a Sweetbriar,
+in all ways like the native one, except that the flowers are nearly
+white, and the hips are larger. Last year the bush was distinctly more
+showy than any other of its kind, on account of the size and unusual
+quantity of the fruit. The other is a form of <i>Rosa sempervirens</i>, with
+rather large white flowers faintly tinged with yellow.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/105top_a.jpg" width="400" height="302" alt="Lavender Hedge and Steps to the Loft." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Lavender Hedge and Steps to the Loft.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image105" name="image105"></a>
+<img src="images/105bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="Hollyhock, Pink Beauty." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Hollyhock, Pink Beauty.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Hollyhocks have been fine, in spite of the disease, which may be partly
+checked by very liberal treatment. By far the most beautiful is one of a
+pure pink colour, with a wide outer frill. It came first from a cottage
+garden, and has always since been treasured. I call it Pink Beauty. The
+wide outer petal (a heresy to the florist) makes the flower infinitely
+more beautiful than the all-over full-double form that alone is esteemed
+on the show-table. I shall hope in time to come upon the same shape of
+flower in white, sulphur, rose-colour, and deep blood-crimson, the
+colours most worth having in Hollyhocks.</p>
+
+<p>Lavender has been unusually fine; to reap its fragrant harvest is one of
+the many joys of the flower year. If it is to be kept and dried, it
+should be cut when as yet only a few of the purple blooms are out on the
+spike; if left too late, the flower shakes off the stalk too readily.</p>
+
+<p>Some plantations of <i>Lilium Harrisi</i> and <i>Lilium auratum</i> have turned
+out well. Some of the <i>Harrisi</i> <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106" name="Page_106"></a>[106]</span>were grouped among tufts of the
+bright-foliaged <i>Funkia grandiflora</i> on the cool side of a Yew hedge.
+Just at the foot of the hedge is <i>Tropæolum speciosum</i>, which runs up
+into it and flowers in graceful wreaths some feet above the ground. The
+masses of pure white lily and cool green foliage below are fine against
+the dark, solid greenery of the Yew, and the brilliant flowers above are
+like little jewels of flame. The Bermuda Lilies (<i>Harrisi</i>) are
+intergrouped with <i>L. speciosum</i>, which will follow them when their
+bloom is over. The <i>L. auratum</i> were planted among groups of
+Rhododendrons; some of them are between tall Rhododendrons, and have
+large clumps of Lady Fern (<i>Filix f&oelig;mina</i>) in front, but those that
+look best are between and among Bamboos (<i>B. Metake</i>); the heavy heads
+of flower borne on tall stems bend gracefully through the Bamboos, which
+just give them enough support.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there in the copse, among the thick masses of green Bracken, is
+a frond or two turning yellow. This always happens in the first or
+second week of August, though it is no indication of the approaching
+yellowing of the whole. But it is taken as a signal that the Fern is in
+full maturity, and a certain quantity is now cut to dry for protection
+and other winter uses. Dry Bracken lightly shaken over frames is a
+better protection than mats, and is almost as easily moved on and off.</p>
+
+<p>The Ling is now in full flower, and is more beautiful in the landscape
+than any of the garden Heaths; the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107" name="Page_107"></a>[107]</span>relation of colouring, of
+greyish foliage and low-toned pink bloom with the dusky spaces of
+purplish-grey shadow, are a precious lesson to the colour-student.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/107top_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="Solomon&#39;s Seal in Spring, in the upper part of the
+Fern-walk." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Solomon&#39;s Seal in Spring, in the upper part of the
+Fern-walk.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image107" name="image107"></a>
+<img src="images/107bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="The Fern-walk in August." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Fern-walk in August.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The fern-walk is at its best. It passes from the garden upwards to near
+the middle of the copse. The path, a wood-path of moss and grass and
+short-cut heath, is a little lower than the general level of the wood.
+The mossy bank, some nine feet wide, and originally cleared for the
+purpose, is planted with large groups of hardy Ferns, with a
+preponderance (due to preference) of Dilated Shield Fern and Lady Fern.
+Once or twice in the length of the bank are hollows, sinking at their
+lowest part to below the path-level, for <i>Osmunda</i> and <i>Blechnum</i>. When
+rain is heavy enough to run down the path it finds its way into these
+hollow places.</p>
+
+<p>Among the groups of Fern are a few plants of true
+wood-character&mdash;<i>Linnæa</i>, <i>Trientalis</i>, <i>Goodyera</i>, and <i>Trillium</i>. At
+the back of the bank, and stretching away among the trees and underwood,
+are wide-spreading groups of Solomon's-seal and Wood-rush, joining in
+with the wild growth of Bracken and Bramble.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the Alpines and dwarf-growing plants, whose home is the
+rock-garden, bloom in May or June, but a few flower in early autumn. Of
+these one of the brightest is <i>Ruta patavina</i>, a dwarf plant with
+lemon-coloured flowers and a very neat habit of growth. It soon makes
+itself at home in a sunny bank in poor soil. <i>Pterocephalus parnassi</i> is
+a dwarf Scabious, with <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108" name="Page_108"></a>[108]</span>small, grey foliage keeping close to the
+ground, and rather large flowers of a low-toned pink. The white Thyme is
+a capital plant, perfectly prostrate, and with leaves of a bright
+yellow-green, that with the white bloom give the plant a particularly
+fresh appearance. It looks at its best when trailing about little flat
+spaces between the neater of the hardy Ferns, and hanging over little
+rocky ledges. Somewhat farther back is the handsome dwarf <i>Platycodon
+Mariesi</i>, and behind it the taller Platycodons, among full-flowered
+bushes of <i>Olearia Haasti</i>.</p>
+
+<p>By the middle of August the garden assumes a character distinctly
+autumnal. Much of its beauty now depends on the many non-hardy plants,
+such as Gladiolus, Canna, and Dahlia, on Tritomas of doubtful hardiness,
+and on half-hardy annuals&mdash;Zinnia, Helichrysum, Sunflower, and French
+and African Marigold. Fine as are the newer forms of hybrid Gladiolus,
+the older strain of gandavensis hybrids are still the best as border
+flowers. In the large flower border, tall, well-shaped spikes of a good
+pink one look well shooting up through and between a wide-spreading
+patch of glaucous foliage of the smaller Yuccas, <i>Tritoma caulescens</i>,
+<i>Iris pallida</i>, and <i>Funkia Sieboldi</i>, while scarlet and salmon-coloured
+kinds are among groups of Pæonies that flowered in June, whose leaves
+are now taking a fine reddish colouring. Between these and the edge of
+the border is a straggling group some yards in length of the
+dark-foliaged <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109" name="Page_109"></a>[109]</span><i>Heuchera Richardsoni</i>, that will hold its
+satin-surfaced leaves till the end of the year. Farther back in the
+border is a group of the scarlet-flowered Dahlia Fire King, and behind
+these, Dahlias Lady Ardilaun and Cochineal, of deeper scarlet colouring.
+The Dahlias are planted between groups of Oriental Poppy, that flower in
+May and then die away till late in autumn. Right and left of the scarlet
+group are Tritomas, intergrouped with Dahlias of moderate height, that
+have orange and flame-coloured flowers. This leads to some masses of
+flowers of strong yellow colouring; the old perennial Sunflower, in its
+tall single form, and the best variety of the old double one of moderate
+height, the useful <i>H. lætiflorus</i> and the tall Miss Mellish, the giant
+form of <i>Harpalium rigidum</i>. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Rudbekia'"><i>Rudbeckia</i></ins> <i>Newmanni</i> reflects the same
+strong colour in the front part of the border, and all spaces are filled
+with orange Zinnias and African Marigolds and yellow Helichrysum. As we
+pass along the border the colour changes to paler yellow by means of a
+pale perennial Sunflower and the sulphur-coloured annual kind, with
+Paris Daisies, <i>&OElig;nothera Lamarkiana</i> and <i>Verbascum phlomoides</i>. The
+two last were cut down to about four feet after their earliest bloom was
+over, and are now again full of profusely-flowered lateral growths. At
+the farther end of the border we come again to glaucous foliage and
+pale-pink flower of Gladiolus and Japan Anemone. It is important in such
+a border of rather large size, that can be seen from a good space
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110" name="Page_110"></a>[110]</span>of lawn, to keep the flowers in rather large masses of colour.
+No one who has ever done it, or seen it done, will go back to the old
+haphazard sprinkle of colouring without any thought of arrangement, such
+as is usually seen in a mixed border. There is a wall of sandstone
+backing the border, also planted in relation to the colour-massing in
+the front space. This gives a quiet background of handsome foliage, with
+always in the flower season some show of colour in one part or another
+of its length. Just now the most conspicuous of its clothing shrubs or
+of the somewhat tall growing flowers at its foot are a fine variety of
+<i>Bignonia radicans</i>, a hardy Fuchsia, the Claret Vine covering a good
+space, with its red-bronze leaves and clusters of blue-black grapes, the
+fine hybrid Crinums and <i>Clerodendron f&oelig;tidum</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Tea Roses have been unusually lavish of autumn bloom, and some of the
+garden climbing Roses, hybrids of China and Noisette, have been of great
+beauty, both growing and as room decoration. Many of them flower in
+bunches at the end of the shoots; whole branches, cut nearly three feet
+long, make charming arrangements in tall glasses or high vases of
+Oriental china. Perhaps their great autumnal vigour is a reaction from
+the check they received in the earlier part of the year, when the bloom
+was almost a failure from the long drought and the <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'accomypaning'">accompanying</ins> attacks
+of blight and mildew. The great hips of the Japanese <i>Rosa rugosa</i> are
+in perfection; they have every ornamental <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111" name="Page_111"></a>[111]</span>quality&mdash;size, form,
+colour, texture, and a delicate waxlike bloom; their pulp is thick and
+luscious, and makes an excellent jam.</p>
+
+<p>The quantity of fungous growth this year is quite remarkable. The late
+heavy rain coming rather suddenly on the well-warmed earth has no doubt
+brought about their unusual size and abundance; in some woodland places
+one can hardly walk without stepping upon them. Many spots in the copse
+are brilliant with large groups of the scarlet-capped Fly Agaric
+(<i>Amanita muscaria</i>). It comes out of the ground looking like a dark
+scarlet ball, generally flecked with raised whitish spots; it quickly
+rises on its white stalk, the ball changing to a brilliant flat disc,
+six or seven inches across, and lasting several days in beauty. But the
+most frequent fungus is the big brown <i>Boletus</i>, in size varying from a
+small bun to a dinner-plate. Some kinds are edible, but I have never
+been inclined to try them, being deterred by their coarse look and
+uninviting coat of slimy varnish. And why eat doubtful <i>Boletus</i> when
+one can have the delicious Chantarelle (<i>Cantharellus cibarius</i>), also
+now at its best? In colour and smell it is like a ripe apricot,
+perfectly wholesome, and, when rightly cooked, most delicate in flavour
+and texture. It should be looked for in cool hollows in oak woods; when
+once found and its good qualities appreciated, it will never again be
+neglected.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112" name="Page_112"></a>[112]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h4>SEPTEMBER</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Sowing Sweet Peas &mdash; Autumn-sown annuals &mdash; Dahlias &mdash;
+Worthless kinds &mdash; Staking &mdash; Planting the rock-garden &mdash;
+Growing small plants in a wall &mdash; The old wall &mdash; Dry-walling
+&mdash; How built &mdash; How planted &mdash; Hyssop &mdash; A destructive storm &mdash;
+Berries of Water-elder &mdash; Beginning ground-work.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />In the second week of September we sow Sweet Peas in shallow trenches.
+The flowers from these are larger and stronger and come in six weeks
+earlier than from those sown in the spring; they come too at a time when
+they are especially valuable for cutting. Many other hardy Annuals are
+best sown now. Some indeed, such as the lovely <i>Collinsia verna</i> and the
+large white Iberis, only do well if autumn-sown. Among others, some of
+the most desirable are Nemophila, Platystemon, Love-in-a-Mist,
+Larkspurs, Pot Marigold, Virginian Stock, and the delightful Venus's
+Navel-wort (<i>Omphalodes linifolia</i>). I always think this daintily
+beautiful plant is undeservedly neglected, for how seldom one sees it.
+It is full of the most charming refinement, with its milk-white bloom
+and grey-blue leaf and neat habit of growth. Any one who has never
+before tried Annuals autumn-sown would be astonished at their
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113" name="Page_113"></a>[113]</span>vigour. A single plant of Nemophila will often cover a square
+yard with its beautiful blue bloom; and then, what a gain it is to have
+these pretty things in full strength in spring and early summer, instead
+of waiting to have them in a much poorer state later in the year, when
+other flowers are in plenty.</p>
+
+<p>Hardy Poppies should be sown even earlier; August is the best time.</p>
+
+<p>Dahlias are now at their full growth. To make a choice for one's own
+garden, one must see the whole plant growing. As with many another kind
+of flower, nothing is more misleading than the evidence of the
+show-table, for many that there look the best, and are indeed lovely in
+form and colour as individual blooms, come from plants that are of no
+garden value. For however charming in humanity is the virtue modesty,
+and however becoming is the unobtrusive bearing that gives evidence of
+its possession, it is quite misplaced in a Dahlia. Here it becomes a
+vice, for the Dahlia's first duty in life is to flaunt and to swagger
+and to carry gorgeous blooms well above its leaves, and on no account to
+hang its head. Some of the delicately-coloured kinds lately raised not
+only hang their heads, but also hide them away among masses of their
+coarse foliage, and are doubly frauds, looking everything that is
+desirable in the show, and proving worthless in the garden. It is true
+that there are ways of cutting out superfluous green stuff and thereby
+encouraging the blooms to show up, but at a busy <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114" name="Page_114"></a>[114]</span>season, when
+rank leafage grows fast, one does not want to be every other day
+tinkering at the Dahlias.</p>
+
+<p>Careful and strong staking they must always have, not forgetting one
+central stake to secure the main growth at first. It is best to drive
+this into the hole made for the plant before placing the root, to avoid
+the danger of sending the point of the stake through the tender tubers.
+Its height out of the ground should be about eighteen inches less than
+the expected stature of the plant. As the Dahlia grows, there should be
+at least three outer stakes at such distance from the middle one as may
+suit the bulk and habit of the plant; and it is a good plan to have
+wooden hoops to tie to these, so as to form a girdle round the whole
+plant, and for tying out the outer branches. The hoop should be only
+loosely fastened&mdash;best with roomy loops of osier, so that it may be
+easily shifted up with the growth of the plant. We make the hoops in the
+winter of long straight rent rods of Spanish Chestnut, bending them
+while green round a tub, and tying them with tarred twine or osier
+bands. They last several years. All this care in staking the Dahlias is
+labour well bestowed, for when autumn storms come the wind has such a
+power of wrenching and twisting, that unless the plant, now grown into a
+heavy mass of succulent vegetation, is braced by firm fixing at the
+sides, it is in danger of being broken off short just above the ground,
+where its stem has become almost woody, and therefore brittle.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115" name="Page_115"></a>[115]</span>Now is the moment to get to work on the rock-garden; there is no
+time of year so precious for this work as September. Small things
+planted now, while the ground is still warm, grow at the root at once,
+and get both anchor-hold and feeding-hold of the ground before frost
+comes. Those that are planted later do not take hold, and every frost
+heaves them up, sometimes right out of the ground. Meanwhile those that
+have got a firm root-hold are growing steadily all the winter,
+underground if not above; and when the first spring warmth comes they
+can draw upon the reserve of strength they have been hoarding up, and
+make good growth at once.</p>
+
+<p>Except in the case of a rockery only a year old, there is sure to be
+some part that wants to be worked afresh, and I find it convenient to do
+about a third of the space every year. Many of the indispensable Alpines
+and rock-plants of lowly growth increase at a great rate, some spreading
+over much more than their due space, the very reason of this
+quick-spreading habit being that they are travelling to fresh pasture;
+many of them prove it clearly by dying away in the middle of the patch,
+and only showing vigorous vitality at the edges.</p>
+
+<p>Such plants as <i>Silene alpestris</i>, <i>Hutchinsia alpina</i>, <i>Pterocephalus</i>,
+the dwarf alpine kinds of <i>Achillea</i> and <i>Artemisia</i>, <i>Veronica</i> and
+<i>Linaria</i>, and the mossy Saxifrages, in my soil want transplanting every
+two years, and the silvery Saxifrages every three years. As in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116" name="Page_116"></a>[116]</span>much else, one must watch what happens in one's own garden. We
+practical gardeners have no absolute knowledge of the constitution of
+the plant, still less of the chemistry of the soil, but by the constant
+exercise of watchful care and helpful sympathy we acquire a certain
+degree of instinctive knowledge, which is as valuable in its way, and
+probably more applicable to individual local conditions, than the
+tabulated formulas of more orthodox science.</p>
+
+<p>One of the best and simplest ways of growing rock-plants is in a loose
+wall. In many gardens an abrupt change of level makes a retaining wall
+necessary, and when I see this built in the usual way as a solid
+structure of brick and mortar&mdash;unless there be any special need of the
+solid wall&mdash;I always regret that it is not built as a home for
+rock-plants. An exposure to north or east and the cool backing of a mass
+of earth is just what most Alpines delight in. A dry wall, which means a
+wall without mortar, may be anything between a wall and a very steep
+rock-work, and may be built of brick or of any kind of local stone. I
+have built and planted a good many hundred yards of dry walling with my
+own hands, both at home and in other gardens, and can speak with some
+confidence both of the pleasure and interest of the actual making and
+planting, and of the satisfactory results that follow.</p>
+
+<p>The best example I have to show in my own garden is the so-called "Old
+Wall," before mentioned. It is the bounding and protecting fence of the
+Pæony <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_117" name="Page_117"></a>[117]</span>ground on its northern side, and consists of a double
+dry wall with earth between. An old hedge bank that was to come away was
+not far off, within easy wheeling distance. So the wall was built up on
+each side, and as it grew, the earth from the hedge was barrowed in to
+fill up. A dry wall needs very little foundation; two thin courses
+underground are quite enough. The point of most structural importance is
+to keep the earth solidly trodden and rammed behind the stones of each
+course and throughout its bulk, and every two or three courses to lay
+some stones that are extra long front and back, to tie the wall well
+into the bank. A local sandstone is the walling material. In the pit it
+occurs in separate layers, with a few feet of hard sand between each.
+The lowest layer, sometimes thirty to forty feet down, is the best and
+thickest, but that is good building stone, and for dry walling we only
+want "tops" or "seconds," the later and younger formations of stone in
+the quarry. The very roughness and almost rotten state of much of this
+stone makes it all the more acceptable as nourishment and root-hold to
+the tiny plants that are to grow in its chinks, and that in a few months
+will change much of the rough rock-surface to green growth of delicate
+vegetation. Moreover, much of the soft sandy stone hardens by exposure
+to weather; and even if a stone or two crumbles right away in a few
+years' time, the rest will hold firmly, and the space left will make a
+little cave where some small fern will live happily.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118" name="Page_118"></a>[118]</span>The wall is planted as it is built with hardy Ferns&mdash;<i>Blechnum</i>,
+Polypody, Hartstongue, <i>Adiantum</i>, <i>Ceterach</i>, <i>Asplenium</i>, and <i>Ruta
+muraria</i>. The last three like lime, so a barrow of old mortar-rubbish is
+at hand, and the joint where they are to be planted has a layer of their
+favourite soil. Each course is laid fairly level as to its front top
+edge, stones of about the same thickness going in course by course. The
+earth backing is then carefully rammed into the spaces at the uneven
+backs of the stones, and a thin layer of earth over the whole course,
+where the mortar would have been in a built wall, gives both a "bed" for
+the next row of stones and soil for the plants that are to grow in the
+joints.</p>
+
+<div class="floatleft" style="width: 258px">
+<img src="images/117left_a.jpg" width="258" height="350" alt="Jack." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Jack. (See page <a href="#Page_079">79</a>.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="floatright" style="width: 260px">
+<img src="images/117right_a.jpg" width="260" height="350" alt="The 'Old Wall.'" title=""/>
+<span class="caption">The "Old Wall."</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="nofloat">The face of the wall slopes backward on both sides, so that its whole
+thickness of five feet at the bottom draws in to four feet at the top.
+All the stones are laid at a right angle to the plane of the
+inclination&mdash;that is to say, each stone tips a little down at the back,
+and its front edge, instead of being upright, faces a little upward. It
+follows that every drop of gentle rain that falls on either side of the
+wall is carried into the joints, following the backward and downward
+pitch of the stones, and then into the earth behind them.</p>
+
+<p>The mass of earth in the middle of the wall gives abundant root-room for
+bushes, and is planted with bush Roses of three kinds, of which the
+largest mass is of <i>Rosa lucida</i>. Then there is a good stretch of
+Berberis; then Scotch Briars, and in one or two <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119" name="Page_119"></a>[119]</span>important
+places Junipers; then more Berberis, and Ribes, and the common Barberry,
+and neat bushes of <i>Olearia Haastii</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The wall was built seven years ago, and is now completely clothed. It
+gives me a garden on the top and a garden on each side, and though its
+own actual height is only 4&frac12; feet, yet the bushes on the top make it
+a sheltering hedge from seven to ten feet high. One small length of
+three or four yards of the top has been kept free of larger bushes, and
+is planted on its northern edge with a very neat and pretty dwarf kind
+of Lavender, while on the sunny side is a thriving patch of the hardy
+Cactus (<i>Opuntia Raffinesquiana</i>). Just here, in the narrow border at
+the foot of the wall, is a group of the beautiful <i>Crinum Powelli</i>,
+while a white Jasmine clothes the face of the wall right and left, and
+rambles into the Barberry bushes just beyond. It so happened that these
+things had been planted close together because the conditions of the
+place were likely to favour them, and not, as is my usual practice, with
+any intentional idea of harmonious grouping. I did not even remember
+that they all flower in July, and at nearly the same time; and one day
+seeing them all in bloom together, I was delighted to see the success of
+the chance arrangement, and how pretty it all was, for I should never
+have thought of grouping together pink and lavender, yellow and white.</p>
+
+<p>The northern face of the wall, beginning at its eastern end, is planted
+thus: For a length of ten or <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120" name="Page_120"></a>[120]</span>twelve paces there are Ferns,
+Polypody and Hartstongue, and a few <i>Adiantum nigrum</i>, with here and
+there a Welsh Poppy. There is a clump of the wild Stitchwort that came
+by itself, and is so pretty that I leave it. At the foot of the wall are
+the same, but more of the Hartstongue; and here it grows best, for not
+only is the place cooler, but I gave it some loamy soil, which it loves.
+Farther along the Hartstongue gives place to the wild Iris (<i>I.
+f&oelig;tidissima</i>), a good long stretch of it. Nothing, to my mind, looks
+better than these two plants at the base of a wall on the cool side. In
+the upper part of the wall are various Ferns, and that interesting
+plant, Wall Pennywort (<i>Cotyledon umbilicus</i>). It is a native plant, but
+not found in this neighbourhood; I brought it from Cornwall, where it is
+so plentiful in the chinks of the granite stone-fences. It sows itself
+and grows afresh year after year, though I always fear to lose it in one
+of our dry summers. Next comes the common London Pride, which I think
+quite the most beautiful of the Saxifrages of this section. If it was a
+rare thing, what a fuss we should make about it! The place is a little
+dry for it, but all the same, it makes a handsome spreading tuft hanging
+over the face of the wall. When its pink cloud of bloom is at its best,
+I always think it the prettiest thing in the garden. Then there is the
+Yellow Everlasting (<i>Gnaphalium orientale</i>), a fine plant for the upper
+edge of the wall, and even better on the sunny side, and the white form
+of <i>Campanula cæspitosa</i>, with its crowd of <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_121" name="Page_121"></a>[121]</span>delicate little
+white bells rising in June, from the neatest foliage of tender but
+lively green. Then follow deep-hanging curtains of Yellow Alyssum and of
+hybrid rock Pinks. The older plants of Alyssum are nearly worn out, but
+there are plenty of promising young seedlings in the lower joints.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 269px;">
+<img src="images/121_a.jpg" width="269" height="400" alt="Erinus Alpinus, clothing Steps in Rock-Wall." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Erinus Alpinus, clothing Steps in Rock-Wall.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Throughout the wall there are patches of Polypody Fern, one of the best
+of cool wall-plants, its creeping root-stock always feeling its way
+along the joints, and steadily furnishing the wall with more and more of
+its neat fronds; it is all the more valuable for being at its best in
+early winter, when so few ferns are to be seen. Every year, in some bare
+places, I sow a little seed of <i>Erinus alpinus</i>, always trying for
+places where it will follow some other kind of plant, such as a place
+where rock Pink or Alyssum has been. All plants are the better for this
+sort of change. In the seven years that the wall has stood, the stones
+have become weathered, and the greater part of the north side, wherever
+the stone work shows, is hoary with mosses, and looks as if it might
+have been standing for a hundred years.</p>
+
+<p>The sunny side is nearly clear of moss, and I have planted very few
+things in its face, because the narrow border at its foot is so precious
+for shrubs and plants that like a warm, sheltered place. Here are
+several Choisyas and Sweet Verbenas, also <i>Escallonia</i>, <i>Stuartia</i>, and
+<i>Styrax</i>, and a long straggling group of some very fine Pentstemons. In
+one space that was fairly clear I planted a bit of Hyssop, an old sweet
+herb whose <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_122" name="Page_122"></a>[122]</span>scent I delight in; it grows into a thick bush-like
+plant full of purple flower in the late summer, when it attracts
+quantities of bumble-bees. It is a capital wall-plant, and has sown its
+own seed, till there is a large patch on the top and some in its face,
+and a broadly-spreading group in the border below. It is one of the
+plants that was used in the old Tudor gardens for edgings; the growth is
+close and woody at the base, and it easily bears clipping into shape.</p>
+
+<p>The fierce gales and heavy rains of the last days of September wrought
+sad havoc among the flowers. Dahlias were virtually wrecked. Though each
+plant had been tied to three stakes, their masses of heavy growth could
+not resist the wrenching and twisting action of the wind, and except in
+a few cases where they were well sheltered, their heads lay on the
+ground, the stems broken down at the last tie. If anything about a
+garden could be disheartening, it would be its aspect after such a storm
+of wind. Wall shrubs, only lately made safe, as we thought, have great
+gaps torn out of them, though tied with tarred string to strong iron
+staples, staples and all being wrenched out. Everything looks battered,
+and whipped, and ashamed; branches of trees and shrubs lie about far
+from their sources of origin; green leaves and little twigs are washed
+up into thick drifts; apples and quinces, that should have hung till
+mid-October, lie bruised and muddy under the trees. Newly-planted roses
+and hollies have a funnel-shaped hole worked in the ground <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_123" name="Page_123"></a>[123]</span>at
+their base, showing the power of the wind to twist their heads, and
+giving warning of a corresponding disturbance of the tender roots. There
+is nothing to be done but to look round carefully and search out all
+disasters and repair them as well as may be, and to sweep up the
+wreckage and rubbish, and try to forget the rough weather, and enjoy the
+calm beauty of the better days that follow, and hope that it may be long
+before such another angry storm is sent. And indeed a few quiet days of
+sunshine and mild temperature work wonders. In a week one would hardly
+know that the garden had been so cruelly torn about. Fresh flowers take
+the place of bruised ones, and wholesome young growths prove the
+enduring vitality of vegetable life. Still we cannot help feeling,
+towards the end of September, that the flower year is nearly at an end,
+though the end is a gorgeous one, with its strong yellow masses of the
+later perennial Sunflowers and Marigolds, Goldenrod, and a few belated
+Gladioli; the brilliant foliage of Virginian Creepers, the leaf-painting
+of <i>Vitis Coignettii</i>, and the strong crimson of the Claret Vine.</p>
+
+<p>The Water-elder (<i>Viburnum opulus</i>) now makes a brave show in the edge
+of the copse. It is without doubt the most beautiful berry-bearing shrub
+of mid-September. The fruit hangs in ample clusters from the point of
+every branch and of every lateral twig, in colour like the brightest of
+red currants, but with a translucent lustre that gives each separate
+berry a <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_124" name="Page_124"></a>[124]</span>much brighter look; the whole bush shows fine warm
+colouring, the leaves having turned to a rich red. Perhaps it is because
+it is a native that this grand shrub or small tree is generally
+neglected in gardens, and is almost unknown in nurserymen's catalogues.
+It is the parent of the well-known Guelder-Rose, which is merely its
+double-flowered form. But the double flower leaves no berry, its
+familiar white ball being formed of the sterile part of the flower only,
+and the foliage of the garden kind does not assume so bright an autumn
+colouring.</p>
+
+<p>The nights are growing chilly, with even a little frost, and the work
+for the coming season of dividing and transplanting hardy plants has
+already begun. Plans are being made for any improvements or alterations
+that involve ground work. Already we have been at work on some broad
+grass rides through the copse that were roughly levelled and laid with
+grass last winter. The turf has been raised and hollows filled in, grass
+seed sown in bare patches, and the whole beaten and rolled to a good
+surface, and the job put out of hand in good time before the leaves
+begin to fall.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_125" name="Page_125"></a>[125]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h4>OCTOBER</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Michaelmas Daisies &mdash; Arranging and staking &mdash; Spindle-tree &mdash;
+Autumn colour of Azaleas &mdash; Quinces &mdash; Medlars &mdash; Advantage of
+early planting of shrubs &mdash; Careful planting &mdash; Pot-bound roots
+&mdash; Cypress hedge &mdash; Planting in difficult places &mdash; Hardy
+flower border &mdash; Lifting Dahlias &mdash; Dividing hardy plants &mdash;
+Dividing tools &mdash; Plants difficult to divide &mdash; Periwinkles &mdash;
+Sternbergia &mdash; Czar Violets &mdash; Deep cultivation for <i>Lilium
+giganteum</i>.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />The early days of October bring with them the best bloom of the
+Michaelmas Daisies, the many beautiful garden kinds of the perennial
+Asters. They have, as they well deserve to have, a garden to themselves.
+Passing along the wide path in front of the big flower border, and
+through the pergola that forms its continuation, with eye and brain full
+of rich, warm colouring of flower and leaf, it is a delightful surprise
+to pass through the pergola's last right-hand opening, and to come
+suddenly upon the Michaelmas Daisy garden in full beauty. Its clean,
+fresh, pure colouring, of pale and dark lilac, strong purple, and pure
+white, among masses of pale-green foliage, forms a contrast almost
+startling after the warm colouring of nearly everything else; and the
+sight of a region where the flowers are <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_126" name="Page_126"></a>[126]</span>fresh and newly opened,
+and in glad spring-like profusion, when all else is on the verge of
+death and decay, gives an impression of satisfying refreshment that is
+hardly to be equalled throughout the year. Their special garden is a
+wide border on each side of a path, its length bounded on one side by a
+tall hedge of filberts, and on the other side by clumps of yew, holly,
+and other shrubs. It is so well sheltered that the strongest wind has
+its destructive power broken, and only reaches it as a refreshing
+tree-filtered breeze. The Michaelmas Daisies are replanted every year as
+soon as their bloom is over, the ground having been newly dug and
+manured. The old roots, which will have increased about fourfold, are
+pulled or chopped to pieces, nice bits with about five crowns being
+chosen for replanting; these are put in groups of three to five
+together. Tall-growing kinds like <i>Novi Belgi</i> Robert Parker are kept
+rather towards the back, while those of delicate and graceful habit,
+such as <i>Cordifolius elegans</i> and its good variety Diana are allowed to
+come forward. The fine dwarf <i>Aster amellus</i> is used in rather large
+quantity, coming quite to the front in some places, and running in and
+out between the clumps of other kinds. Good-sized groups of <i>Pyrethrum
+uliginosum</i> are given a place among the Asters, for though of quite
+another family, they are Daisies, and bloom at Michaelmas, and are
+admirable companions to the main occupants of the borders. The only
+other plants admitted are white Dahlias, the two differently striped
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_127" name="Page_127"></a>[127]</span>varieties of <i>Eulalia japonica</i>, the fresh green foliage of
+Indian Corn, and the brilliant light-green leafage of <i>Funkia
+grandiflora</i>. Great attention is paid to staking the Asters. Nothing is
+more deplorable than to see a neglected, overgrown plant, at the last
+moment, when already half blown down, tied up in a tight bunch to one
+stake. When we are cutting underwood in the copse in the winter, special
+branching spray is looked out for our Michaelmas Daisies and cut about
+four feet or five feet long, with one main stem and from two to five
+branches. Towards the end of June and beginning of July these are thrust
+firmly into the ground among the plants, and the young growths are tied
+out so as to show to the best advantage. Good kinds of Michaelmas
+Daisies are now so numerous that in selecting those for the special
+garden it is well to avoid both the ones that bloom earliest and also
+the very latest, so that for about three weeks the borders may show a
+well-filled mass of bloom.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/126top_a.jpg" width="400" height="301" alt="Borders of Michaelmas Daisies." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/126bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="294" alt="Borders of Michaelmas Daisies." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Borders of Michaelmas Daisies.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The bracken in the copse stands dry and dead, but when leaves are
+fluttering down and the chilly days of mid-October are upon us, its
+warm, rusty colouring is certainly cheering; the green of the freshly
+grown mossy carpet below looks vividly bright by contrast. Some bushes
+of Spindle-tree (<i>Euonymus europæus</i>) are loaded with their rosy
+seed-pods; some are already burst, and show the orange-scarlet seeds&mdash;an
+audacity of colouring that looks all the brighter for the even,
+lustreless green of the leaves and of the green-barked twigs and stems.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_128" name="Page_128"></a>[128]</span>The hardy Azaleas are now blazing masses of crimson, almost
+scarlet leaf; the old <i>A. pontica</i>, with its large foliage, is as bright
+as any. With them are grouped some of the North American Vacciniums and
+Andromedas, with leaves almost as bright. The ground between the groups
+of shrubs is knee-deep in heath. The rusty-coloured withered bloom of
+the wild heath on its purplish-grey masses and the surrounding banks of
+dead fern make a groundwork and background of excellent colour-harmony.</p>
+
+<p>How seldom does one see Quinces planted for ornament, and yet there is
+hardly any small tree that better deserves such treatment. Some Quinces
+planted about eight years ago are now perfect pictures, their lissome
+branches borne down with the load of great, deep-yellow fruit, and their
+leaves turning to a colour almost as rich and glowing. The old English
+rather round-fruited kind with the smooth skin is the best both for
+flavour and beauty&mdash;a mature tree without leaves in winter has a
+remarkably graceful, arching, almost weeping growth. The other kind is
+of a rather more rigid form, and though its woolly-coated, pear-shaped
+fruits are larger and strikingly handsome, the whole tree has a coarser
+look, and just lacks the attractive grace of the other. They will do
+fairly well almost anywhere, though they prefer a rich, loamy soil and a
+cool, damp, or even swampy place. The Medlar is another of the small
+fruiting trees that is more neglected than it should be, as it well
+deserves a place <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_129" name="Page_129"></a>[129]</span>among ornamental shrubs. Here it is a precious
+thing in the region where garden melts into copse. The fruit-laden twigs
+are just now very attractive, and its handsome leaves can never be
+passed without admiration. Close to the Medlars is a happy intergrowth
+of the wild Guelder-Rose, still bearing its brilliant clusters, a
+strong-growing and far-clambering garden form of <i>Rosa arvensis</i>, full
+of red hips, Sweetbriar, and Holly&mdash;a happy tangle of red-fruited
+bushes, all looking as if they were trying to prove, in friendly
+emulation, which can make the bravest show of red-berried wild-flung
+wreath, or bending spray, or stately spire; while at their foot the
+bright colour is repeated by the bending, berried heads of the wild
+Iris, opening like fantastic dragons' mouths, and pouring out the red
+bead-like seeds upon the ground; and, as if to make the picture still
+more complete, the leaves of the wild Strawberry that cover the ground
+with a close carpet have also turned to a crimson, and here and there to
+an almost scarlet colour.</p>
+
+<p>During the year I make careful notes of any trees or shrubs that will be
+wanted, either to come from the nursery or to be transplanted within my
+own ground, so as to plant them as early as possible. Of the two
+extremes it is better to plant too early than too late. I would rather
+plant deciduous trees before the leaves are off than wait till after
+Christmas, but of all planting times the best is from the middle of
+October till the end of November, and the same <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_130" name="Page_130"></a>[130]</span>time is the best
+for all hardy plants of large or moderate size.</p>
+
+<p>I have no patience with slovenly planting. I like to have the ground
+prepared some months in advance, and when the proper time comes, to do
+the actual planting as well as possible. The hole in the already
+prepared ground is taken out so that the tree shall stand exactly right
+for depth, though in this dry soil it is well to make the hole an inch
+or two deeper, in order to leave the tree standing in the centre of a
+shallow depression, to allow of a good watering now and then during the
+following summer. The hole must be made wide enough to give easy space
+for the most outward-reaching of the roots; they must be spread out on
+all sides, carefully combing them out with the fingers, so that they all
+lay out to the best advantage. Any roots that have been bruised, or have
+broken or jagged ends, are cut off with a sharp knife on the homeward
+side of the injury. Most gardeners when they plant, after the first
+spadeful or two has been thrown over the root, shake the bush with an up
+and down joggling movement. This is useful in the case of plants with a
+good lot of bushy root, such as Berberis, helping to get the grains of
+earth well in among the root; but in tree planting, where the roots are
+laid out flat, it is of course useless. In our light soil, the closer
+and firmer the earth is made round the newly-planted tree the better,
+and strong staking is most important, in order to save the newly-placed
+root from disturbance by dragging.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_131" name="Page_131"></a>[131]</span>Some trees and shrubs one can only get from nurseries in pots.
+This is usually the case with Ilex, Escallonia, and Cydonia. Such plants
+are sure to have the roots badly matted and twisted. The main root curls
+painfully round and round inside the imprisoning pot, but if it is a
+clever root it works its way out through the hole in the bottom, and
+even makes quite nice roots in the bed of ashes it has stood on. In this
+case, as these are probably its best roots, we do not attempt to pull it
+back through the hole, but break the pot to release it without hurt. If
+it is possible to straighten the pot-curled root, it is best to do so;
+in any case, the small fibrous ones can be laid out. Often the potful of
+roots is so hard and tight that it cannot be disentangled by the hand;
+then the only way is to soften it by gentle bumping on the bench, and
+then to disengage the roots by little careful digs all round with a
+blunt-pointed stick. If this is not done, and the plant is put in in its
+pot-bound state, it never gets on; it would be just as well to throw it
+away at once.</p>
+
+<p>Nine years ago a hedge of Lawson's Cypress was planted on one side of
+the kitchen garden. Three years later, when the trees had made some
+growth, I noticed in the case of three or four that they were quite bare
+of branches on one side all the way up for a width of about one-sixth of
+the circumference, leaving a smooth, straight, upright strip. Suspecting
+the cause, I had them up, and found in every case that the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_132" name="Page_132"></a>[132]</span>root
+just below the bare strip had been doubled under the stem, and had
+therefore been unable to do its share of the work. Nothing could have
+pointed out more clearly the defect in the planting.</p>
+
+<p>There are cases where ground cannot be prepared as one would wish, and
+where one has to get over the difficulty the best way one can. Such a
+case occurred when I had to plant some Yews and Savins right under a
+large Birch-tree. The Birch is one of several large ones that nearly
+surround the lawn. This one stands just within the end of a large
+shrub-clump, near the place of meeting of some paths with the grass and
+with some planting; here some further planting was wanted of dark-leaved
+evergreens. There is no tree more ground-robbing than a Birch, and under
+the tree in question the ground was dust-dry, extremely hard, and
+nothing but the poorest sand. Looking at the foot of a large tree one
+can always see which way the main roots go, and the only way to get down
+any depth is to go between these and not many feet away from the trunk.
+Farther away the roots spread out and would receive more injury. So the
+ground was got up the best way we could, and the Yews and Savins
+planted. Now, after some six years, they are healthy and dark-coloured,
+and have made good growth. But in such a place one cannot expect the
+original preparation of the ground, such as it was, to go for much. The
+year after planting they had some strong, lasting manure just pricked in
+over the roots&mdash;stuff from the shoeing-forge, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_133" name="Page_133"></a>[133]</span>full of
+hoof-parings. Hoof-parings are rich in ammonia, and decay slowly. Every
+other year they have either a repetition of this or some cooling cow
+manure. The big Birch no doubt gets some of it, though its hungriest
+roots are farther afield, but the rich colour of the shrubs shows that
+they are well nourished.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as may be in November the big hardy flower-border has to be
+thoroughly looked over. The first thing is to take away all "soft
+stuff." This includes all dead annuals and biennials and any tender
+things that have been put in for the summer, also Paris Daisies,
+Zinnias, French and African Marigolds, Helichrysums, Mulleins, and a few
+Geraniums. Then Dahlias are cut down. The waste stuff is laid in big
+heaps on the edge of the lawn just across the footpath, to be loaded
+into the donkey-cart and shot into some large holes that have been dug
+up in the wood, whose story will be told later.</p>
+
+<p>The Dahlias are now dug up from the border, and others collected from
+different parts of the garden. The labels are tied on to the short
+stumps that remain, and the roots are laid for a time on the floor of a
+shed. If the weather has been rainy just before taking them up, it is
+well to lay them upside down, so that any wet there may be about the
+bases of the large hollow stalks may drain out. They are left for
+perhaps a fortnight without shaking out the earth that holds between the
+tubers, so that they may be fairly dry before they are put away for the
+winter in a cellar.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_134" name="Page_134"></a>[134]</span>Then we go back to the flower border and dig out all the plants
+that have to be divided every year. It will also be the turn for some
+others that only want division every two or three or more years, as the
+case may be. First, out come all the perennial Sunflowers. These divide
+themselves into two classes; those whose roots make close clumpy masses,
+and those that throw out long stolons ending in a blunt snout, which is
+the growing crown for next year. To the first division belong the old
+double Sunflower (<i>Helianthus multiflorus</i>), of which I only keep the
+well-shaped variety Soleil d'Or, and the much taller large-flowered
+single kind, and a tall pale-yellow flowered one with a dark stem, whose
+name I do not know. It is not one of the kinds thought much of, and as
+usually grown has not much effect; but I plant it at the back and pull
+it down over other plants that have gone out of flower, so that instead
+of having only a few flowers at the top of a rather bare stem eight feet
+high, it is a spreading cloud of pale yellow bloom; the training down,
+as in the case of so many other plants, inducing it to throw up a short
+flowering stalk from the axil of every leaf along the stem. The kinds
+with the running roots are <i>Helianthus rigidus</i>, and its giant variety
+Miss Mellish, <i>H. decapetalus</i> and <i>H. lætiflorus</i>. I do not know how it
+may be in other gardens, but in mine these must be replanted every year.</p>
+
+<p>Phloxes must also be taken up. They are always difficult here, unless
+the season is unusually rainy; <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_135" name="Page_135"></a>[135]</span>in dry summers, even with
+mulching and watering, I cannot keep them from drying up. The outside
+pieces are cut off and the woody middle thrown away. It is surprising
+what a tiny bit of Phlox will make a strong flowering plant in one
+season. The kinds I like best are the pure whites and the salmon-reds;
+but two others that I find very pretty and useful are Eugénie, a good
+mauve, and Le Soleil, a strong pink, of a colour as near a really good
+pink as in any Phlox I know. Both of these have a neat and rather short
+habit of growth. I do not have many Michaelmas Daisies in the flower
+border, only some early ones that flower within September; of these
+there are the white-flowered <i>A. paniculatus</i>, <i>Shortii</i>, <i>acris</i>, and
+<i>amellus</i>. These of course come up, and any patches of Gladiolus are
+collected, to be dried for a time and then stored.</p>
+
+<p>The next thing is to look through the border for the plants that require
+occasional renewal. In the front I find that a longish patch of
+<i>Heuchera Richardsoni</i> has about half the plants overgrown. These must
+come up, and are cut to pieces. It is not a nice plant to divide; it has
+strong middle crowns, and though there are many side ones, they are
+attached to the main ones too high up to have roots of their own; but I
+boldly slice down the main stocky stem with straight downward cuts, so
+as to give a piece of the thick stock to each side bit. I have done this
+both in winter and spring, and find the spring rather the best, if not
+followed by drought. Groups of <i>Anemone japonica</i> and <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_136" name="Page_136"></a>[136]</span>of
+<i>Polygonum compactum</i> are spreading beyond bounds and must be reduced.
+Neither of these need be entirely taken up. Without going into further
+detail, it may be of use to note how often I find it advisable to lift
+and divide some of the more prominent hardy plants.</p>
+
+<p>Every year I divide Michaelmas Daisies, Goldenrod, <i>Helianthus</i>,
+<i>Phlox</i>, <i>Chrysanthemum maximum</i>, <i>Helenium pumilum</i>, <i>Pyrethrum
+uliginosum</i>, <i>Anthemis tinctoria</i>, <i>Monarda</i>, <i>Lychnis</i>, <i>Primula</i>,
+except <i>P. denticulata</i>, <i>rosea</i>, and <i>auricula</i>, which stand two years.</p>
+
+<p>Every two years, White Pinks, Cranesbills, <i>Spiræa</i>, <i>Aconitum</i>,
+<i>Gaillardia</i>, <i>Coreopsis</i>, <i>Chrysanthemum indicum</i>, <i>Galega</i>,
+<i>Doronicum</i>, <i>Nepeta</i>, <i>Geum aureum</i>, <i>&OElig;nothera Youngi</i>, and <i>&OElig;.
+riparia</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Every three years, <i>Tritoma</i>, <i>Megasea</i>, <i>Centranthus</i>, <i>Vinca</i>, <i>Iris</i>,
+<i>Narcissus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A plasterer's hammer is a tool that is very handy for dividing plants.
+It has a hammer on one side of the head, and a cutting blade like a
+small chopper on the other. With this and a cold chisel and a strong
+knife one can divide any roots in comfort. I never divide things by
+brutally chopping them across with a spade. Plants that have soft fleshy
+tubers like Dahlias and Pæonies want the cold chisel; it can be cleverly
+inserted among the crowns so that injury to the tubers is avoided, and
+it is equally useful in the case of some plants whose points of
+attachment are almost as hard as wire, like <i>Orobus vernus</i>, or as
+tough <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_137" name="Page_137"></a>[137]</span>as a door-mat, like <i>Iris graminia</i>. The Michaelmas
+Daisies of the <i>Novæ Angliæ</i> section make root tufts too close and hard
+to be cut with a knife, and here the chopper of the plasterer's hammer
+comes in. Where the crowns are closely crowded, as in this Aster, I find
+it best to chop at the bottom of the tuft, among the roots; when the
+chopper has cut about two-thirds through, the tuft can be separated with
+the hands, dividing naturally between the crowns, whereas if chopped
+from the top many crowns would have been spoilt.</p>
+
+<p>Tritomas want dividing with care; it always looks as if one could pull
+every crown apart, but there is a tender point at the "collar," where
+they easily break off short; with these also it is best to chop from
+below or to use the chisel, making the cut well down in the yellow rooty
+region. Veratrums divide much in the same way, wanting a careful cut low
+down, the points of their crowns being also very easy to break off. The
+Christmas Rose is one of the most awkward plants to divide successfully.
+It cannot be done in a hurry. The only safe way is to wash the clumps
+well out and look carefully for the points of attachment, and cut them
+either with knife or chisel, according to their position. In this case
+the chisel should be narrower and sharper. Three-year-old tufts of St.
+Bruno's Lily puzzled me at first. The rather fleshy roots are so tightly
+interlaced that cutting is out of the question; but I found out that if
+the tuft is held tight in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_138" name="Page_138"></a>[138]</span>two hands, and the hands are
+worked opposite ways with a rotary motion of about a quarter of a
+circle, that they soon come apart without being hurt in the least.
+Delphiniums easily break off at the crown if they are broken up by hand,
+but the roots cut so easily that it ought not to be a difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>There are some plants in whose case one can never be sure whether they
+will divide well or not, such as Oriental Poppies and <i>Eryngium
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Olivieranum'">Oliverianum</ins></i>. They behave in nearly the same way. Sometimes a Poppy or
+an Eryngium comes up with one thick root, impossible to divide, while
+the next door plant has a number of roots that are ready to drop apart
+like a bunch of Salsafy.</p>
+
+<p>Everlasting Peas do nearly the same. One may dig up two plants&mdash;own
+brothers of say seven years old&mdash;and a rare job it is, for they go
+straight down into the earth nearly a yard deep. One of them will have a
+straight black post of a root 2&frac12; inches thick without a break of any
+sort till it forks a foot underground, while the other will be a sort of
+loose rope of separate roots from half to three-quarters of an inch
+thick, that if carefully followed down and cleverly dissected where they
+join, will make strong plants at once. But the usual way to get young
+plants of Everlasting Pea is to look out in earliest spring for the many
+young growths that will be shooting, for these if taken off with a good
+bit of the white underground stem will root under a hand-light.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_139" name="Page_139"></a>[139]</span>Most of the Primrose tribe divide pleasantly and easily: the
+worst are the <i>auricula</i> section; with these, for outdoor planting, one
+often has to slice a main root down to give a share of root to the
+offset.</p>
+
+<p>When one is digging up plants with running roots, such as Gaultheria,
+Honeysuckle, Polygonum, Scotch Briars, and many of the <i>Rubus</i> tribe, or
+what is better, if one person is digging while another pulls up, it
+never does for the one who is pulling to give a steady haul; this is
+sure to end in breakage, whereas a root comes up willingly and unharmed
+in loosened ground to a succession of firm but gentle tugs, and one soon
+learns to suit the weight of the pulls to the strength of the plant, and
+to learn its breaking strain.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of October outdoor flowers in anything like quantity
+cannot be expected, and yet there are patches of bloom here and there in
+nearly every corner of the garden. The pretty Mediterranean Periwinkle
+(<i>Vinca acutiflora</i>) is in full bloom. As with many another southern
+plant that in its own home likes a cool and shady place, it prefers a
+sunny one in our latitude. The flowers are of a pale and delicate
+grey-blue colour, nearly as large as those of the common <i>Vinca major</i>,
+but they are borne more generously as to numbers on radical shoots that
+form thick, healthy-looking tufts of polished green foliage. It is not
+very common in gardens, but distinctly desirable.</p>
+
+<p>In the bulb-beds the bright-yellow <i>Sternbergia lutea</i> is in flower. At
+first sight it looks something like a <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_140" name="Page_140"></a>[140]</span>Crocus of unusually firm
+and solid substance; but it is an Amaryllis, and its pure and even
+yellow colouring is quite unlike that of any of the Crocuses. The
+numerous upright leaves are thick, deep green, and glossy. It flowers
+rather shyly in our poor soil, even in well-made beds, doing much better
+in chalky ground.</p>
+
+<p>Czar Violets are giving their fine and fragrant flowers on stalks nine
+inches long. To have them at their best they must be carefully
+cultivated and liberally enriched. No plants answer better to good
+treatment, or spoil more quickly by neglect. A miserable sight is a
+forgotten violet-bed where they have run together into a tight mat,
+giving only few and poor flowers. I have seen the owner of such a bed
+stand over it and blame the plants, when he should have laid the lash on
+his own shoulders. Violets must be replanted every year. When the last
+rush of bloom in March is over, the plants are pulled to pieces, and
+strong single crowns from the outer edges of the clumps, or from the
+later runners, are replanted in good, well-manured soil, in such a place
+as will be somewhat shaded from summer sun. There should be eighteen
+inches between each plant, and as they make their growth, all runners
+should be cut off until August. They are encouraged by liberal doses of
+liquid manure from time to time, and watered in case of drought; and the
+heart of the careful gardener is warmed and gratified when friends,
+seeing them at <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_141" name="Page_141"></a>[141]</span>midsummer, say (as has more than once happened),
+"What a nice batch of young Hollyhocks!"</p>
+
+<p>In such a simple matter as the culture of this good hardy Violet, my
+garden, though it is full of limitations, and in all ways falls short of
+any worthy ideal, enables me here and there to point out something that
+is worth doing, and to lay stress on the fact that the things worth
+doing are worth taking trouble about. But it is a curious thing that
+many people, even among those who profess to know something about
+gardening, when I show them something fairly successful&mdash;the crowning
+reward of much care and labour&mdash;refuse to believe that any pains have
+been taken about it. They will ascribe it to chance, to the goodness of
+my soil, and even more commonly to some supposed occult influence of my
+own&mdash;to anything rather than to the plain fact that I love it well
+enough to give it plenty of care and labour. They assume a tone of
+complimentary banter, kindly meant no doubt, but to me rather
+distasteful, to this effect: "Oh yes, of course it will grow for you;
+anything will grow for you; you have only to look at a thing and it will
+grow." I have to pump up a laboured smile and accept the remark with
+what grace I can, as a necessary civility to the stranger that is within
+my gates, but it seems to me evident that those who say these things do
+not understand the love of a garden.</p>
+
+<p>I could not help rejoicing when such a visitor came to me one October. I
+had been saying how <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_142" name="Page_142"></a>[142]</span>necessary good and deep cultivation was,
+especially in so very poor and shallow a soil as mine. Passing up
+through the copse where there were some tall stems of <i>Lilium giganteum</i>
+bearing the great upturned pods of seed, my visitor stopped and said, "I
+don't believe a word about your poor soil&mdash;look at the growth of that
+Lily. Nothing could make that great stem ten feet high in a poor soil,
+and there it is, just stuck into the wood!" I said nothing, knowing that
+presently I could show a better answer than I could frame in words. A
+little farther up in the copse we came upon an excavation about twelve
+feet across and four deep, and by its side a formidable mound of sand,
+when my friend said, "Why are you making all this mess in your pretty
+wood? are you quarrying stone, or is it for the cellar of a building?
+and what on earth are you going to do with that great heap of sand? why,
+there must be a dozen loads of it." That was my moment of secret
+triumph, but I hope I bore it meekly as I answered, "I only wanted to
+plant a few more of those big Lilies, and you see in my soil they would
+not have a chance unless the ground was thoroughly prepared; look at the
+edge of the scarp and see how the solid yellow sand comes to within four
+inches of the top; so I have a big wide hole dug; and look, there is the
+donkey-cart coming with the first load of Dahlia-tops and soft plants
+that have been for the summer in the south border. There will be several
+of those little cartloads, each holding three <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_143" name="Page_143"></a>[143]</span>barrowfuls. As it
+comes into the hole, the men will chop it with the spade and tread it
+down close, mixing in a little sand. This will make a nice cool, moist
+bottom of slowly-rotting vegetable matter. Some more of the same kind of
+waste will come from the kitchen garden&mdash;cabbage-stumps, bean-haulm,
+soft weeds that have been hoed up, and all the greenest stuff from the
+rubbish-heap. Every layer will be chopped and pounded, and tramped down
+so that there should be as little sinking as possible afterwards. By
+this time the hole will be filled to within a foot of the top; and now
+we must get together some better stuff&mdash;road-scrapings and trimmings
+mixed with some older rubbish-heap mould, and for the top of all, some
+of our precious loam, and the soil of an old hotbed and some
+well-decayed manure, all well mixed, and then we are ready for the
+Lilies. They are planted only just underground, and then the whole bed
+has a surfacing of dead leaves, which helps to keep down weeds, and also
+looks right with the surrounding wild ground. The remains of the heap of
+sand we must deal with how we can; but there are hollows here and there
+in the roadway and paths, and a place that can be levelled up in the
+rubbish-yard, and some kitchen-garden paths that will bear raising, and
+so by degrees it is disposed of."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_144" name="Page_144"></a>[144]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h4>NOVEMBER</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>Giant Christmas Rose &mdash; Hardy Chrysanthemums &mdash; Sheltering
+tender shrubs &mdash; Turfing by inoculation &mdash; Transplanting large
+trees &mdash; Sir Henry Steuart's experience early in the century &mdash;
+Collecting fallen leaves &mdash; Preparing grubbing tools &mdash;
+Butcher's Broom &mdash; Alexandrian Laurel &mdash; Hollies and Birches &mdash;
+A lesson in planting.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />The giant Christmas Rose (<i>Helleborus maximus</i>) is in full flower; it is
+earlier than the true Christmas Rose, being at its best by the middle of
+November. It is a large and massive flower, but compared with the later
+kinds has a rather coarse look. The bud and the back of the flower are
+rather heavily tinged with a dull pink, and it never has the pure-white
+colouring throughout of the later ones.</p>
+
+<p>I have taken some pains to get together some really hardy
+November-blooming Chrysanthemums. The best of all is a kind frequent in
+neighbouring cottage-gardens, and known hereabouts as Cottage Pink. I
+believe it is identical with Emperor of China, a very old sort that used
+to be frequent in greenhouse cultivation before it was supplanted by the
+many good kinds now grown. But its place is not indoors, but in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_145" name="Page_145"></a>[145]</span>the open garden; if against a south or west wall, so much the
+better. Perhaps one year in seven the bloom may be spoilt by such a
+severe frost as that of October 1895, but it will bear unharmed several
+degrees of frost and much rain. I know no Chrysanthemum of so true a
+pink colour, the colour deepening to almost crimson in the centre. After
+the first frost the foliage of this kind turns to a splendid colour, the
+green of the leaves giving place to a rich crimson that sometimes clouds
+the outer portion of the leaf, and often covers its whole expanse. The
+stiff, wholesome foliage adds much to the beauty of the outdoor kinds,
+contrasting most agreeably with the limp, mildewed leafage of those
+indoors. Following Cottage Pink is a fine pompone called Soleil d'Or, in
+colour the richest deep orange, with a still deeper and richer coloured
+centre. The beautiful crimson Julie Lagravère flowers at the same time.
+Both are nearly frost-proof, and true hardy November flowers.</p>
+
+<p>The first really frosty day we go to the upper part of the wood and cut
+out from among the many young Scotch Firs as many as we think will be
+wanted for sheltering plants and shrubs of doubtful hardiness. One
+section of the high wall at the back of the flower border is planted
+with rather tender things, so that the whole is covered with sheltering
+fir-boughs. Here are Loquat, Fuchsia, Pomegranate, <i>Edwardsia</i>,
+<i>Piptanthus</i>, and <i>Choisya</i>, and in the narrow border at the foot of the
+wall, <i>Crinum</i>, <i>Nandina</i>, <i>Clerodendron</i>, and <i>Hydrangea</i>. <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_146" name="Page_146"></a>[146]</span>In
+the broad border in front of the wall nothing needs protection except
+Tritomas; these have cones of coal-ashes heaped over each plant or
+clump. The Crinums also have a few inches of ashes over them.</p>
+
+<p>Some large Hydrangeas in tubs are moved to a sheltered place and put
+close together, a mound of sand being shovelled up all round to nearly
+the depth of the tubs; then a wall is made of thatched hurdles, and dry
+fern is packed well in among the heads of the plants. They would be
+better in a frost-proof shed, but we have no such place to spare.</p>
+
+<p>The making of a lawn is a difficulty in our very poor sandy soil. In
+this rather thickly-populated country the lords of the manor had been so
+much pestered for grants of road-side turf, and the privilege when
+formerly given had been so much abused, that they have agreed together
+to refuse all applications. Opportunities of buying good turf do not
+often occur, and sowing is slow, and not satisfactory. I am told by a
+seedsman of the highest character that it is almost impossible to get
+grass seed clean and true to name from the ordinary sources; the leading
+men therefore have to grow their own.</p>
+
+<p>In my own case, having some acres of rough heath and copse where the
+wild grasses are of fine-leaved kinds, I made the lawn by inoculation.
+The ground was trenched and levelled, then well trodden and raked, and
+the surface stones collected. Tufts of the wild grass were then forked
+up, and were pulled into pieces <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_147" name="Page_147"></a>[147]</span>about the size of the palm of
+one's hand, and laid down eight inches apart, and well rolled in. During
+the following summer we collected seed of the same grasses to sow early
+in spring in any patchy or bare places. One year after planting the
+patches had spread to double their size, and by the second year had
+nearly joined together. The grasses were of two kinds only, namely,
+Sheep's Fescue (<i>Festuca ovina</i>) and Crested Dog's-tail (<i>Agrostis
+canina</i>). They make a lawn of a quiet, low-toned colour, never of the
+bright green of the rather coarser grasses; but in this case I much
+prefer it; it goes better with the Heath and Fir and Bracken that belong
+to the place. In point of labour, a lawn made of these fine grasses has
+the great merit of only wanting mowing once in three weeks.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I have never undertaken the transplanting of large trees, but there is
+no doubt that it may be done with success, and in laying out a new place
+where the site is bare, if suitable trees are to be had, it is a plan
+much to be recommended. It has often been done of late years, but until
+a friend drew my attention to an article in the <i>Quarterly Review</i>,
+dated March 1828, I had no idea that it had been practised on a large
+scale so early in the century. The article in question was a review of
+"The Planter's Guide," by Sir Henry Steuart, Bart., LL.D. (Edinburgh,
+1828.) It quoted the opinion and observation of a committee of
+gentlemen, among whom was Sir Walter Scott, who visited
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_148" name="Page_148"></a>[148]</span>Allanton (Sir Henry Steuart's place) in September 1828, when the
+trees had been some years planted. They found them growing "with vigour
+and luxuriance, and in the most exposed situations making shoots of
+eighteen inches.... From the facts which they witnessed the committee
+reported it as their unanimous opinion that the art of transplantation,
+as practised by Sir Henry Steuart, is calculated to accelerate in an
+extraordinary degree the power of raising wood, whether for beauty or
+shelter."</p>
+
+<p>The reviewer then quotes the method of transplantation, describing the
+extreme care with which the roots are preserved, men with picks
+carefully trying round the ground beneath the outer circumference of the
+branches for the most outlying rootlets, and then gradually approaching
+the bole. The greatest care was taken not to injure any root or fibre,
+these as they were released from the earth being tied up, and finally
+the transplanting machine, consisting of a strong pole mounted on high
+wheels, was brought close to the trunk and attached to it, and the tree
+when lowered, carefully transported to its new home. Every layer of
+roots was then replanted with the utmost care, with delicate fingering
+and just sufficient ramming, and in the end the tree stood without any
+artificial support whatever, and in positions exposed to the fiercest
+gales.</p>
+
+<p>The average size of tree dealt with seems to have had a trunk about a
+foot in diameter, but some were <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_149" name="Page_149"></a>[149]</span>removed with complete success
+whose trunks were two feet thick. In order that his trees might be the
+better balanced in shape, Sir Henry boldly departed from the older
+custom of replanting a tree in its original aspect, for he reversed the
+aspect, so that the more stunted and shorter-twigged weather side now
+became the lee side, and could grow more freely.</p>
+
+<p>He insists strongly on the wisdom of transplanting only well-weathered
+trees, and not those of tender constitution that had been sheltered by
+standing among other close growths, pointing out that these have a
+tenderer bark and taller top and roots less well able to bear the strain
+of wind and weather in the open.</p>
+
+<p>He reckons that a transplanted tree is in full new growth by the fourth
+or fifth year, and that an advantage equal to from thirty to forty
+years' growth is gained by the system. As for the expense of the work,
+Sir Henry estimated that his largest trees each cost from ten to
+thirteen shillings to take up, remove half a mile, and replant. In the
+case of large trees the ground that was to receive them was prepared a
+twelvemonth beforehand.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Now, in the third week of November, the most pressing work is the
+collecting of leaves for mulching and leaf-mould. The oaks have been
+late in shedding their leaves, and we have been waiting till they are
+down. Oak-leaves are the best, then hazel, elm, and Spanish chestnut.
+Birch and beech are not so good; beech-leaves <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_150" name="Page_150"></a>[150]</span>especially take
+much too long to decay. This is, no doubt, the reason why nothing grows
+willingly under beeches. Horse and cart and three hands go out into the
+lanes for two or three days, and the loads that come home go three feet
+deep into the bottom of a range of pits. The leaves are trodden down
+close and covered with a layer of mould, in which winter salad stuff is
+immediately planted. The mass of leaves will soon begin to heat, and
+will give a pleasant bottom-heat throughout the winter. Other loads of
+leaves go into an open pen about ten feet square and five feet deep. Two
+such pens, made of stout oak post and rail and upright slabs, stand side
+by side in the garden yard. The one newly filled has just been emptied
+of its two-year-old leaf-mould, which has gone as a nourishing and
+protecting mulch over beds of Daffodils and choice bulbs and
+Alströmerias, some being put aside in reserve for potting and various
+uses. The other pen remains full of the leaves of last year, slowly
+rotting into wholesome plant-food.</p>
+
+<p>With works of wood-cutting and stump-grubbing near at hand, we look over
+the tools and see that all are in readiness for winter work. Axes and
+hand-bills are ground, fag-hooks sharpened, picks and mattocks sent to
+the smithy to be drawn out, the big cross-cut saw fresh sharpened and
+set, and the hand-saws and frame-saws got ready. The rings of the bittle
+are tightened and wedged up, so that its heavy head may not split when
+the mighty blows, flung into the tool <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_151" name="Page_151"></a>[151]</span>with a man's full
+strength, fall on the heads of the great iron wedges.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/150top_a.jpg" width="400" height="301" alt="Pens for Storing Dead Leaves." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Pens for Storing Dead Leaves.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image150" name="image150"></a>
+<img src="images/150bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="Careful Wild-Gardening&mdash;White Foxgloves at the Edge of
+the Fir Wood." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Careful Wild-Gardening&mdash;White Foxgloves at the Edge of
+the Fir Wood. (See page <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Some thinning of birch-trees has to be done in the lowest part of the
+copse, not far from the house. They are rather evenly distributed on the
+ground, and I wish to get them into groups by cutting away superfluous
+trees. On the neighbouring moorland and heathy uplands they are apt to
+grow naturally in groups, the individual trees generally bending outward
+towards the free, open space, the whole group taking a form that is
+graceful and highly pictorial. I hope to be able to cut out trees so as
+to leave the remainder standing in some such way. But as a tree once cut
+cannot be put up again, the condemned ones are marked with bands of
+white paper right round the trunks, so that they can be observed from
+all sides, thus to give a chance of reprieve to any tree that from any
+point of view may have pictorial value.</p>
+
+<p>Frequent in some woody districts in the south of England, though local,
+is the Butcher's Broom (<i>Ruscus aculeatus</i>). Its stiff green branches
+that rise straight from the root bear small, hard leaves, armed with a
+sharp spine at the end. The flower, which comes in early summer, is
+seated without stalk in the middle of the leaf, and is followed by a
+large red berry. In country places where it abounds, butchers use the
+twigs tied in bunches to brush the little chips of meat off their great
+chopping-blocks, that are made of solid sections of elm trees, standing
+three and a half <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_152" name="Page_152"></a>[152]</span>feet high and about two and a half feet
+across. Its beautiful garden relative, the Alexandrian or Victory Laurel
+(<i>Ruscus racemosus</i>), is also now just at its best. Nothing makes a more
+beautiful wreath than two of its branches, suitably arched and simply
+bound together near the butts and free ends. It is not a laurel, but a
+<i>Ruscus</i>, the name laurel having probably grown on to it by old
+association with any evergreen suitable for a victor's wreath. It is a
+slow-growing plant, but in time makes handsome tufts of its graceful
+branches. Few plants are more exquisitely modelled, to use a term
+familiar to the world of fine art, or give an effect of more delicate
+and perfect finish. It is a valuable plant in a shady place in good,
+cool soil. Early in summer, when the young growths appear, the old, then
+turning rusty, should be cut away.</p>
+
+<p>No trees group together more beautifully than Hollies and Birches. One
+such happy mixture in one part of the copse suggested further plantings
+of Holly, Birches being already in abundance. Every year some more
+Hollies are planted; those put in nine years ago are now fifteen feet
+high, and are increasing fast. They are slow to begin growth after
+transplanting, perhaps because in our very light soil they cannot be
+moved with a "ball"; all the soil shakes away, and leaves the root
+naked; but after about three years, when the roots have got good hold
+and begun to ramble, they grow away well. The trunk of an old Holly has
+a smooth pale-grey bark, and sometimes <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_153" name="Page_153"></a>[153]</span>a slight twist, that
+makes it look like the gigantic bone of some old-world monster. The
+leaves of some old trees, especially if growing in shade, change their
+shape, losing the side prickles and becoming longer and nearly flat and
+more of a dark bottle-green colour, while the lower branches and twigs,
+leafless except towards their ends, droop down in a graceful line that
+rises again a little at the tip.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 266px;">
+<img src="images/153_a.jpg" width="266" height="400" alt="Holly Stems in an Old Hedge-Row." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Holly Stems in an Old Hedge-Row.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The leaves are all down by the last week of November, and woodland
+assumes its winter aspect; perhaps one ought rather to say, some one of
+its infinite variety of aspects, for those who live in such country know
+how many are the winter moods of forest land, and how endless are its
+variations of atmospheric effect and pictorial beauty&mdash;variations much
+greater and more numerous than are possible in summer.</p>
+
+<p>With the wind in the south-west and soft rain about, the twigs of the
+birches look almost crimson, while the dead bracken at their foot,
+half-draggled and sodden with wet, is of a strong, dark rust colour. Now
+one sees the full value of the good evergreens, and, rambling through
+woodland, more especially of the Holly, whether in bush or tree form,
+with its masses of strong green colour, dark and yet never gloomy.
+Whether it is the high polish of the leaves, or the lively look of their
+wavy edges, with the short prickles set alternately up and down, or the
+brave way the tree has of shooting up among other thick growth,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_154" name="Page_154"></a>[154]</span>or its massive sturdiness on a bare hillside, one cannot say,
+but a Holly in early winter, even without berries, is always a cheering
+sight. John Evelyn is eloquent in his praise of this grand evergreen,
+and lays special emphasis on this quality of cheerfulness.</p>
+
+<p>Near my home is a little wild valley, whose planting, wholly done by
+Nature, I have all my life regarded with the most reverent admiration.</p>
+
+<p>The arable fields of an upland farm give place to hazel copses as the
+ground rises. Through one of these a deep narrow lane, cool and dusky in
+summer from its high steep banks and over-arching foliage, leads by a
+rather sudden turn into the lower end of the little valley. Its grassy
+bottom is only a few yards wide, and its sides rise steeply right and
+left. Looking upward through groups of wild bushes and small trees, one
+sees thickly-wooded ground on the higher levels. The soil is of the very
+poorest; ridges of pure yellow sand are at the mouths of the many
+rabbit-burrows. The grass is of the short fine kinds of the heathy
+uplands. Bracken grows low, only from one to two feet high, giving
+evidence of the poverty of the soil, and yet it seems able to grow in
+perfect beauty clumps of Juniper and Thorn and Holly, and Scotch Fir on
+the higher ground.</p>
+
+<p>On the steeply-rising banks are large groups of Juniper, some tall, some
+spreading, some laced and wreathed about with tangles of Honeysuckle,
+now in brown winter dress, and there are a few bushes of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_155" name="Page_155"></a>[155]</span>Spindle-tree, whose green stems and twigs look strangely green
+in winter. The Thorns stand some singly, some in close companionship,
+impenetrable masses of short-twigged prickly growth, with here and there
+a wild Rose shooting straight up through the crowded branches. One
+thinks how lovely it will be in early June, when the pink Rose-wreaths
+are tossing out of the foamy sea of white Thorn blossom. The Hollies are
+towering masses of health and vigour. Some of the groups of Thorn and
+Holly are intermingled; all show beautiful arrangements of form and
+colour, such as are never seen in planted places. The track in the
+narrow valley trends steadily upwards and bears a little to the right.
+High up on the left-hand side is an old wood of Scotch Fir. A few
+detached trees come half-way down the valley bank to meet the gnarled,
+moss-grown Thorns and the silver-green Junipers. As the way rises some
+Birches come in sight, also at home in the sandy soil. Their graceful,
+lissome spray moving to the wind looks active among the stiffer trees,
+and their white stems shine out in startling contrast to the other dusky
+foliage. So the narrow track leads on, showing the same kinds of tree
+and bush in endless variety of beautiful grouping, under the sombre
+half-light of the winter day. It is afternoon, and as one mounts higher
+a pale bar of yellow light gleams between the farther tree-stems, but
+all above is grey, with angry, blackish drifts of ragged wrack. Now the
+valley opens out to a nearly level space of rough <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_156" name="Page_156"></a>[156]</span>grass, with
+grey tufts that will be pink bell-heather in summer, and upstanding
+clumps of sedge that tell of boggy places. In front and to the right are
+dense fir-woods. To the left is broken ground and a steep-sided hill,
+towards whose shoulder the track rises. Here are still the same kinds of
+trees, but on the open hillside they have quite a different effect. Now
+I look into the ruddy heads of the Thorns, bark and fruit both of rich
+warm colouring, and into the upper masses of the Hollies, also reddening
+into wealth of berry.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/154_a.jpg" width="400" height="269" alt="Wild Junipers." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Wild Junipers.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Throughout the walk, pacing slowly but steadily for nearly an hour, only
+these few kinds of trees have been seen, Juniper, Holly, Thorn, Scotch
+Fir, and Birch (a few small Oaks excepted), and yet there has not been
+once the least feeling of monotony, nor, returning downward by the same
+path, could one wish anything to be altered or suppressed or differently
+grouped. And I have always had the same feeling about any quite wild
+stretch of forest land. Such a bit of wild forest as this small valley
+and the hilly land beyond are precious lessons in the best kind of tree
+and shrub planting. No artificial planting can ever equal that of
+Nature, but one may learn from it the great lesson of the importance of
+moderation and reserve, of simplicity of intention, and directness of
+purpose, and the inestimable value of the quality called "breadth" in
+painting. For planting ground is painting a landscape with living
+things; and as I hold that good <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_157" name="Page_157"></a>[157]</span>gardening takes rank within
+the bounds of the fine arts, so I hold that to plant well needs an
+artist of no mean capacity. And his difficulties are not slight ones,
+for his living picture must be right from all points, and in all lights.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/156top_a.jpg" width="400" height="302" alt="Wild Junipers." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/156bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="304" alt="Wild Junipers." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Wild Junipers.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>No doubt the planting of a large space with a limited number of kinds of
+trees cannot be trusted to all hands, for in those of a person without
+taste or the more finely-trained perceptions the result would be very
+likely dull or even absurd. It is not the paint that make the picture,
+but the brain and heart and hand of the man who uses it.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_158" name="Page_158"></a>[158]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h4>DECEMBER</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>The woodman at work &mdash; Tree-cutting in frosty weather &mdash;
+Preparing sticks and stakes &mdash; Winter Jasmine &mdash; Ferns in the
+wood-walk &mdash; Winter colour of evergreen shrubs &mdash; Copse-cutting
+&mdash; Hoop-making &mdash; Tools used &mdash; Sizes of hoops &mdash; Men camping
+out &mdash; Thatching with hoop-chips &mdash; The old thatcher's bill.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />It is good to watch a clever woodman and see how much he can do with his
+simple tools, and how easily one man alone can deal with heavy pieces of
+timber. An oak trunk, two feet or more thick, and weighing perhaps a
+ton, lies on the ground, the branches being already cut off. He has to
+cleave it into four, and to remove it to the side of a lane one hundred
+feet away. His tools are an axe and one iron wedge. The first step is
+the most difficult&mdash;to cut such a nick in the sawn surface of the butt
+of the trunk as will enable the wedge to stick in. He holds the wedge to
+the cut and hammers it gently with the back of the axe till it just
+holds, then he tries a moderate blow, and is quite prepared for what is
+almost sure to happen&mdash;the wedge springs out backwards; very likely it
+springs out for three or four trials, but at last the wedge bites and he
+can give it the dexterous, rightly-placed blows that <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_159" name="Page_159"></a>[159]</span>slowly
+drive it in. Before the wedge is in half its length a creaking sound is
+heard; the fibres are beginning to tear, and a narrow rift shows on each
+side of the iron. A few more strokes and the sound of the rending fibres
+is louder and more continuous, with sudden cracking noises, that tell of
+the parting of larger bundles of fibres, that had held together till the
+tremendous rending power of the wedge at last burst them asunder. Now
+the man looks out a bit of strong branch about four inches thick, and
+with the tree-trunk as a block and the axe held short in one hand as a
+chopper, he makes a wooden wedge about twice the size of the iron one,
+and drives it into one of the openings at its side. For if you have only
+one iron wedge, and you drive it tight into your work, you can neither
+send it farther nor get it out, and you feel and look foolish. The
+wooden wedge driven in releases the iron one, which is sent in afresh
+against the side of the wedge of oak, the trunk meanwhile rending slowly
+apart with much grieving and complaining of the tearing fibres. As the
+rent opens the axe cuts across diagonal bundles of fibres that still
+hold tightly across the widening rift. And so the work goes on, the man
+unconsciously exercising his knowledge of his craft in placing and
+driving the wedges, the helpless wood groaning and creaking and finally
+falling apart as the last holding fibres are severed by the axe.
+Meanwhile the raw green wood gives off a delicious scent, sweet and
+sharp and refreshing, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_160" name="Page_160"></a>[160]</span>not unlike the smell of apples crushing
+in the cider-press.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 264px;">
+<img src="images/158_a.jpg" width="264" height="400" alt="The Woodman." title="" />
+<span class="caption">The Woodman.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The woodman has still to rend the two halves of the trunk, but the work
+is not so heavy and goes more quickly. Now he has to shift them to the
+side of the rough track that serves as a road through the wood. They are
+so heavy that two men could barely lift them, and he is alone. He could
+move them with a lever, that he could cut out of a straight young tree,
+a foot or so at a time at each end, but it is a slow and clumsy way;
+besides, the wood is too much encumbered with undergrowth. So he cuts
+two short pieces from a straight bit of branch four inches or five
+inches thick, levers one of his heavy pieces so that one end points to
+the roadway, prises up this end and kicks one of his short pieces under
+it close to the end, settling it at right angles with gentle kicks. The
+other short piece is arranged in the same way, a little way beyond the
+middle of the length of quartered trunk. Now, standing behind it, he can
+run the length easily along on the two rollers, till the one nearest him
+is left behind; this one is then put under the front end of the weight,
+and so on till the road is reached.</p>
+
+<p>Trees that stand where paths are to come, or that for any reason have to
+be removed, root and all, are not felled with axe or saw, but are
+grubbed down. The earth is dug away next to the tree, gradually exposing
+the roots; these are cut through <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_161" name="Page_161"></a>[161]</span>with axe or mattock close to
+the butt, and again about eighteen inches away, so that by degrees a
+deep trench, eighteen inches wide, is excavated round the butt. A rope
+is fastened at the right distance up the trunk, when, if the tree does
+not hold by a very strong tap-root, a succession of steady pulls will
+bring it down; the weight of the top thus helping to prise the heavy
+butt out of the ground. We come upon many old stumps of Scotch fir, the
+remains of the original wood; they make capital firewood, though some
+burn rather too fiercely, being full of turpentine. Many are still quite
+sound, though it must be six-and-twenty years since they were felled.
+They are very hard to grub, with their thick taproots and far-reaching
+laterals, and still tougher to split up, their fibres are so much
+twisted, and the dark-red heart-wood has become hardened till it rings
+to a blow almost like metal. But some, whose roots have rotted, come up
+more easily, and with very little digging may be levered out of the
+ground with a long iron stone-bar, such as they use in the neighbouring
+quarries, putting the point of the bar under the "stam," and having a
+log of wood for a hard fulcrum. Or a stout young stem of oak or chestnut
+is used for a lever, passing a chain under the stump and over the middle
+of the bar and prising upwards with the lever. "Stam" is the word always
+used by the men for any stump of a tree left in the ground.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/161top_a.jpg" width="400" height="299" alt="Grubbing a Tree-stump." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Grubbing a Tree-stump.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image161" name="image161"></a>
+<img src="images/161bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="Felling and Grubbing Tools. (See page 150.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Felling and Grubbing Tools. (See page <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_162" name="Page_162"></a>[162]</span>A spell of frosty days at the end of December puts a stop to all
+planting and ground work. Now we go into the copse and cut the trees
+that have been provisionally marked, judged, and condemned, with the
+object of leaving the remainder standing in graceful groups. The men
+wonder why I cut some of the trees that are best and straightest and
+have good tops, and leave those with leaning stems. Anything of seven
+inches or less diameter is felled with the axe, but thicker trees with
+the cross-cut saw. For these our most active fellow climbs up the tree
+with a rope, and makes it fast to the trunk a good way up, then two of
+them, kneeling, work the saw. When it has cut a third of the way
+through, the rope is pulled on the side opposite the cut to keep it open
+and let the saw work free. When still larger trees are sawn down this is
+done by driving in a wedge behind the saw, when the width of the
+saw-blade is rather more than buried in the tree. When the trunk is
+nearly sawn through, it wants care and judgment to see that the saw does
+not get pinched by the weight of the tree; the clumsy workman who fails
+to clear his saw gets laughed at, and probably damages his tool. Good
+straight trunks of oak and chestnut are put aside for special uses; the
+rest of the larger stuff is cut into cordwood lengths of four feet. The
+heaviest of these are split up into four pieces to make them easier to
+load and carry away, and eventually to saw up into firewood.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_163" name="Page_163"></a>[163]</span>The best of the birch tops are cut into pea-sticks, a clever,
+slanting cut with the hand-bill leaving them pointed and ready for use.
+Throughout the copse are "stools" of Spanish chestnut, cut about once in
+five years. From this we get good straight stakes for Dahlias and
+Hollyhocks, also beanpoles; while the rather straight-branched boughs
+are cut into branching sticks for Michaelmas Daisies, and special
+lengths are got ready for various kinds of plants&mdash;Chrysanthemums,
+Lilies, Pæonies and so on. To provide all this in winter, when other
+work is slack or impossible, is an important matter in the economy of a
+garden, for all gardeners know how distressing and harassing it is to
+find themselves without the right sort of sticks or stakes in summer,
+and what a long job it then seems to have to look them up and cut them,
+of indifferent quality, out of dry faggots. By the plan of preparing all
+in winter no precious time is lost, and a tidy withe-bound bundle of the
+right sort is always at hand. The rest of the rough spray and small
+branching stuff is made up into faggots to be chopped up for
+fire-lighting; the country folk still use the old word "bavin" for
+faggots. The middle-sized branches&mdash;anything between two inches and six
+inches in diameter&mdash;are what the woodmen call "top and lop"; these are
+also cut into convenient lengths, and are stacked in the barn, to be cut
+into billets for next year's fires in any wet or frosty weather, when
+outdoor work is at a standstill.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_164" name="Page_164"></a>[164]</span>What a precious winter flower is the yellow Jasmine (<i>Jasminum
+nudiflorum</i>). Though hard frost spoils the flowers then expanded, as
+soon as milder days come the hosts of buds that are awaiting them burst
+into bloom. Its growth is so free and rapid that one has no scruple
+about cutting it freely; and great branching sprays, cut a yard or more
+long, arranged with branches of Alexandrian Laurel or other suitable
+foliage&mdash;such as Andromeda or Gaultheria&mdash;are beautiful as room
+decoration.</p>
+
+<p>Christmas Roses keep on flowering bravely, in spite of our light soil
+and frequent summer drought, both being unfavourable conditions; but
+bravest of all is the blue Algerian Iris (<i>Iris stylosa</i>), flowering
+freely as it does, at the foot of a west wall, in all open weather from
+November till April.</p>
+
+<p>In the rock-garden at the edge of the copse the creeping evergreen
+<i>Polygala chamæbuxus</i> is quite at home in beds of peat among mossy
+boulders. Where it has the ground to itself, this neat little shrub
+makes close tufts only four inches or five inches high, its wiry
+branches being closely set with neat, dark-green, box-like leaves;
+though where it has to struggle for life among other low shrubs, as may
+often be seen in the Alps, the branches elongate, and will run bare for
+two feet or three feet to get the leafy end to the light. Even now it is
+thickly set with buds and has a few expanded flowers. This bit of
+rock-garden is mostly planted with dwarf shrubs&mdash;<i>Skimmia</i>, Bog-myrtle,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_165" name="Page_165"></a>[165]</span>Alpine Rhododendrons, <i>Gaultheria</i>, and <i>Andromeda</i>, with drifts
+of hardy ferns between, and only a few "soft" plants. But of these, two
+are now conspicuously noticeable for foliage&mdash;the hardy Cyclamens and
+the blue Himalayan Poppy (<i>Meconopsis Wallichi</i>). Every winter I notice
+how bravely the pale woolly foliage of this plant bears up against the
+early winter's frost and wet.</p>
+
+<p>The wood-walk, whose sloping banks are planted with hardy ferns in large
+groups, shows how many of our common kinds are good plants for the first
+half of the winter. Now, only a week before Christmas, the male fern is
+still in handsome green masses; <i>Blechnum</i> is still good, and common
+Polypody at its best. The noble fronds of the Dilated Shield-fern are
+still in fairly good order, and <i>Ceterach</i> in rocky chinks is in fullest
+beauty. Beyond, in large groups, are prosperous-looking tufts of the
+Wood-rush (<i>Luzula sylvatica</i>); then there is wood as far as one can
+see, here mostly of the silver-stemmed Birch and rich green Holly, with
+the woodland carpet of dusky low-toned bramble and quiet dead leaf and
+brilliant moss.</p>
+
+<p>By the middle of December many of the evergreen shrubs that thrive in
+peat are in full beauty of foliage. <i>Andromeda Catesbæi</i> is richly
+coloured with crimson clouds and splashes; Skimmias are at their best
+and freshest, their bright, light green, leathery foliage defying all
+rigours of temperature or weather. Pernettyas are clad in their
+strongest and deepest green leafage, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_166" name="Page_166"></a>[166]</span>and show a richness and
+depth of colour only surpassed by that of the yew hedges.</p>
+
+<p>Copse-cutting is one of the harvests of the year for labouring men, and
+all the more profitable that it can go on through frosty weather. A
+handy man can earn good wages at piece-work, and better still if he can
+cleave and shave hoops. Hoop-making is quite a large industry in these
+parts, employing many men from Michaelmas to March. They are
+barrel-hoops, made of straight poles of six years' growth. The wood used
+is Birch, Ash, Hazel and Spanish Chestnut. Hazel is the best, or as my
+friend in the business says, "Hazel, that's the master!" The growths of
+the copses are sold by auction in some near county town, as they stand,
+the buyer clearing them during the winter. They are cut every six years,
+and a good copse of Chestnut has been known to fetch £54 an acre.</p>
+
+<p>A good hoop-maker can earn from twenty to twenty-five shillings a week.
+He sets up his brake, while his mate, who will cleave the rods, cuts a
+post about three inches thick, and fixes it into the ground so that it
+stands about three feet high. To steady it he drives in another of
+rather curly shape by its side, so that the tops of the two are nearly
+even, but the foot of the curved spur is some nine inches away at the
+bottom, with its top pressing hard against the upright. To stiffen it
+still more he makes a long withe of a straight hazel rod, which he
+twists into a rope by holding the butt tightly under his left foot
+and <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_167" name="Page_167"></a>[167]</span>twisting with both hands till the fibres are wrenched
+open and the withe is ready to spring back and wind upon itself. With
+this he binds his two posts together, so that they stand perfectly
+rigid. On this he cleaves the poles, beginning at the top. The tool is a
+small one-handed adze with a handle like a hammer. A rod is usually
+cleft in two, so that it is only shaved on one side; but sometimes a
+pole of Chestnut, a very quick-growing wood, is large enough to cleave
+into eight, and when the wood is very clean and straight they can
+sometimes get two lengths of fourteen feet out of a pole.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/167_a.jpg" width="400" height="267" alt="Hoop-making in the Woods." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Hoop-making in the Woods.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The brake is a strong flat-shaped post of oak set up in the ground to
+lean a little away from the workman. It stands five and a half feet out
+of the ground. A few inches from its upper end it has a shoulder cut in
+it which acts as the fulcrum for the cross-bar that supports the pole to
+be shaved, and that leans down towards the man. The relative position of
+the two parts of the brake reminds one of the mast and yard of a
+lateen-rigged boat. The bar is nicely balanced by having a hazel withe
+bound round a groove at its upper short end, about a foot beyond the
+fulcrum, while the other end of the withe is tied round a heavy bit of
+log or stump that hangs clear of the ground and just balances the bar,
+so that it see-saws easily. The cleft rod that is to be shaved lies
+along the bar, and an iron pin that passes through the head of the brake
+just above the point where the bar rides over its <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_168" name="Page_168"></a>[168]</span>shoulder,
+nips the hoop as the weight of the stroke comes upon it; the least
+lifting of the bar releases the hoop, which is quickly shifted onwards
+for a new stroke. The shaving tool is a strong two-handled draw-knife,
+much like the tool used by wheelwrights. It is hard work, "wunnerful
+tryin' across the chest."</p>
+
+<p>The hoops are in several standard lengths, from fourteen to two and a
+half feet. The longest go to the West Indies for sugar hogsheads, and
+some of the next are for tacking round pipes of wine. The wine is in
+well-made iron-hooped barrels, but the wooden hoops are added to protect
+them from the jarring and bumping when rolled on board ship, and
+generally to save them during storage and transit. These hoops are in
+two sizes, called large and small pipes. A thirteen-foot size go to
+foreign countries for training vines on. A large quantity that measure
+five feet six inches, and called "long pinks," are for cement barrels. A
+length of seven feet six inches are used for herring barrels, and are
+called kilderkins, after the name of the size of tub. Smaller sizes go
+for gunpowder barrels, and for tacking round packing-cases and
+tea-chests.</p>
+
+<p>The men want to make all the time they can in the short winter daylight,
+and often the work is some miles from home, so if the weather is not
+very cold they make huts of the bundles of rods and chips, and sleep out
+on the job. I always admire the neatness with which the bundles are
+fastened up, and the strength of the withe-rope that binds them, for
+sixty <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_169" name="Page_169"></a>[169]</span>hoops, or thirty pairs, as they call them, of fourteen
+feet, are a great weight to be kept together by four slight hazel bands.</p>
+
+<div class="floatleft" style="width: 262px">
+<img src="images/169left_a.jpg" width="262" height="350" alt="Hoop-shaving." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Hoop-shaving.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="floatright" style="width: 257px">
+<img src="images/169right_a.jpg" width="257" height="350" alt="Shed-roof, thatched with Hoop-chip." title=""/>
+<span class="caption">Shed-roof, thatched with Hoop-chip.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="nofloat">In this industry there is a useful by-product in the shavings, or chips
+as they call them. They are eighteen inches to two feet long, and are
+made up into small faggots or bundles and stacked up for six months to a
+year to dry, and then sell readily at twopence a bundle to cut up for
+fire-lighting. They also make a capital thatch for sheds, a thatch
+nearly a foot thick, warm in winter, and cool in summer, and durable,
+for if well made it will last for forty years. I got a clever old
+thatcher to make me a hoop-chip roof for the garden shed; it was a long
+job, and he took his time (although it was piece-work), preparing and
+placing each handful of chips as carefully as if he was making a wedding
+bouquet. He was one of the old sort&mdash;no scamping of work for him; his
+work was as good as he could make it, and it was his pride and delight.
+The roof was prepared with strong laths nailed horizontally across the
+rafters as if for tiling, but farther apart; and the chips, after a
+number of handfuls had been duly placed and carefully poked and patted
+into shape, were bound down to the laths with soft tarred cord guided by
+an immense iron needle. The thatching, as in all cases of roof-covering,
+begins at the eaves, so that each following layer laps over the last.
+Only the ridge has to be of straw, because straw can be bent over; the
+chips are too rigid. When <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_170" name="Page_170"></a>[170]</span>the thatch is all in place the whole
+is "drove," that is, beaten up close with a wooden bat that strikes
+against the ends of the chips and drives them up close, jamming them
+tight into the fastening. After six months of drying summer weather he
+came and drove it all over again.</p>
+
+<p>Thatching is done by piece-work, and paid at so much a "square" of ten
+by ten feet. When I asked for his bill, the old man brought it made out
+on a hazel stick, in a manner either traditional, or of his own
+devising. This is how it runs, in notches about half an inch long, and
+dots dug with the point of the knife. It means, "To so much work done,
+£4, 5s. 0d."</p>
+
+<p class="bill">IIXXX·I·, IIXXXX·II&and; IIII&and;XX,IIXX</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_171" name="Page_171"></a>[171]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<h4>LARGE AND SMALL GARDENS</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>A well done villa garden &mdash; A small town garden &mdash; Two
+delightful gardens of small size &mdash; Twenty acres within the
+walls &mdash; A large country house and its garden &mdash; Terrace &mdash;
+Lawn &mdash; Parterre &mdash; Free garden &mdash; Kitchen garden &mdash; Buildings
+&mdash; Ornamental orchard &mdash; Instructive mixed gardens &mdash; Mr.
+Wilson's at Wisley &mdash; A window garden.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />The size of a garden has very little to do with its merit. It is merely
+an accident relating to the circumstances of the owner. It is the size
+of his heart and brain and goodwill that will make his garden either
+delightful or dull, as the case may be, and either leave it at the usual
+monotonous dead-level, or raise it, in whatever degree may be, towards
+that of a work of fine art. If a man knows much, it is more difficult
+for him to deal with a small space than a larger, for he will have to
+make the more sacrifice; but if he is wise he will at once make up his
+mind about what he will let go, and how he may best treat the restricted
+space. Some years ago I visited a small garden attached to a villa on
+the outskirts of a watering-place on the south coast. In ordinary hands
+it would have been a perfectly commonplace thing, with the usual
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_172" name="Page_172"></a>[172]</span>weary mixture, and exhibiting the usual distressing symptoms
+that come in the train of the ministrations of the jobbing-gardener. In
+size it may have been a third of an acre, and it was one of the most
+interesting and enjoyable gardens I have ever seen, its master and
+mistress giving it daily care and devotion, and enjoying to the full its
+glad response of grateful growth. The master had built with his own
+hands, on one side where more privacy was wanted, high rugged walls,
+with spaces for many rock-loving plants, and had made the wall die away
+so cleverly into the rock-garden, that the whole thing looked like a
+garden founded on some ancient ruined structure. And it was all done
+with so much taste that there was nothing jarring or strained-looking,
+still less anything cockneyfied, but all easy and pleasant and pretty,
+while the happy look of the plants at once proclaimed his sympathy with
+them, and his comprehensive knowledge of their wants. In the same garden
+was a walled enclosure where Tree Pæonies and some of the hardier of the
+oriental Rhododendrons were thriving, and there were pretty spaces of
+lawn, and flower border, and shrub clump, alike beautiful and enjoyable,
+all within a small space, and yet not crowded&mdash;the garden of one who was
+a keen flower lover, as well as a world-known botanist.</p>
+
+<p>I am always thankful to have seen this garden, because it showed me, in
+a way that had never been so clearly brought home to me, how much may be
+done in a small space.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_173" name="Page_173"></a>[173]</span>Another and much smaller garden that I remember with pleasure
+was in a sort of yard among houses, in a country town. The house it
+belonged to, a rather high one, was on its east side, and halfway along
+on the south; the rest was bounded by a wall about ten feet high.
+Opposite the house the owner had built of rough blocks of sandstone what
+served as a workshop, about twelve feet long along the wall, and six
+feet wide within. A low archway of the same rough stone was the
+entrance, and immediately above it a lean-to roof sloped up to the top
+of the wall, which just here had been carried a little higher. The roof
+was of large flat sandstones, only slightly lapping over each other,
+with spaces and chinks where grew luxuriant masses of Polypody Fern. It
+was contrived with a cement bed, so that it was quite weather-tight, and
+the room was lighted by a skylight at one end that did not show from the
+garden. A small surface of lead-flat, on a level with the top of the
+wall, in one of the opposite angles, carried an old oil-jar, from which
+fell masses of gorgeous Tropæolum, and the actual surface of the flat
+was a garden of Stonecrops. The rounded coping of the walls, and the
+joints in many places (for the wall was an old one), were gay with
+yellow Corydalis and Snapdragons and more Stonecrops. The little garden
+had a few pleasant flowering bushes, Ribes and Laurustinus, a Bay and an
+Almond tree. In the coolest and shadiest corner were a fern-grotto and a
+tiny tank. The rest of the garden, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_174" name="Page_174"></a>[174]</span>only a few yards across, was
+laid out with a square bed in the middle, and a little path round, then
+a three-feet-wide border next the wall, all edged with rather tall-grown
+Box. The middle bed had garden Roses and Carnations, and Mignonette and
+Stocks. All round were well-chosen plants and shrubs, looking well and
+happy, though in a confined and rather airless space. Every square foot
+had been made the most of with the utmost ingenuity, but the ingenuity
+was always directed by good taste, so that nothing looked crowded or out
+of place.</p>
+
+<p>And I think of two other gardens of restricted space, both long strips
+of ground walled at the sides, whose owners I am thankful to count among
+my friends&mdash;one in the favoured climate of the Isle of Wight, a little
+garden where I suppose there are more rare and beautiful plants brought
+together within a small space than perhaps in any other garden of the
+same size in England; the other in a cathedral town, now a memory only,
+for the master of what was one of the most beautiful gardens I have ever
+seen now lives elsewhere. The garden was long in shape, and divided
+about midway by a wall. The division next the house was a quiet lawn,
+with a mulberry tree and a few mounded borders near the sides that were
+unobstrusive, and in no way spoilt the quiet feeling of the lawn space.
+Then a doorway in the dividing wall led to a straight path with a double
+flower border. I suppose there was a vegetable garden <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_175" name="Page_175"></a>[175]</span>behind
+the borders, but of that I have no recollection, only a vivid
+remembrance of that brilliantly beautiful mass of flowers. The picture
+was good enough as one went along, especially as at the end one came
+first within sound and then within sight of a rushing river, one of
+those swift, clear, shallow streams with stony bottom that the trout
+love; but it was ten times more beautiful on turning to go back, for
+there was the mass of flowers, and towering high above it the noble mass
+of the giant structure&mdash;one of the greatest and yet most graceful
+buildings that has ever been raised by man to the glory of God.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that it is not every one that has the advantage of a garden
+bounded by a river and a noble church, but even these advantages might
+have been lost by vulgar or unsuitable treatment of the garden. But the
+mind of the master was so entirely in sympathy with the place, that no
+one that had the privilege of seeing it could feel that it was otherwise
+than right and beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>Both these were the gardens of clergymen; indeed, some of our greatest
+gardeners are, and have been, within the ranks of the Church. For have
+we not a brilliantly-gifted dignitary whose loving praise of the Queen
+of flowers has become a classic? and have we not among churchmen the
+greatest grower of seedling Daffodils the world has yet seen, and other
+names of clergymen honourably associated with Roses and Auriculas and
+Tulips and other good flowers, and all <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_176" name="Page_176"></a>[176]</span>greatly to their
+bettering? The conditions of the life of a parish priest would tend to
+make him a good gardener, for, while other men roam about, he stays
+mostly at home, and to live with one's garden is one of the best ways to
+ensure its welfare. And then, among the many anxieties and vexations and
+disappointments that must needs grieve the heart of the pastor of his
+people, his garden, with its wholesome labour and all its lessons of
+patience and trust and hopefulness, and its comforting power of solace,
+must be one of the best of medicines for the healing of his often
+sorrowing soul.</p>
+
+<p>I do not envy the owners of very large gardens. The garden should fit
+its master or his tastes just as his clothes do; it should be neither
+too large nor too small, but just comfortable. If the garden is larger
+than he can individually govern and plan and look after, then he is no
+longer its master but its slave, just as surely as the much-too-rich man
+is the slave and not the master of his superfluous wealth. And when I
+hear of the great place with a kitchen garden of twenty acres within the
+walls, my heart sinks as I think of the uncomfortable disproportion
+between the man and those immediately around him, and his vast output of
+edible vegetation, and I fall to wondering how much of it goes as it
+should go, or whether the greater part of it does not go dribbling away,
+leaking into unholy back-channels; and of how the looking after it must
+needs be subdivided; and of how many <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_177" name="Page_177"></a>[177]</span>side-interests are likely
+to steal in, and altogether how great a burden of anxiety or matter of
+temptation it must give rise to. A grand truth is in the old farmer's
+saying, "The master's eye makes the pig fat;" but how can any one
+master's eye fat that vast pig of twenty acres, with all its minute and
+costly cultivation, its two or three crops a year off all ground given
+to soft vegetables, its stoves, greenhouses, orchid and orchard houses,
+its vineries, pineries, figgeries, and all manner of glass structures?</p>
+
+<p>But happily these monstrous gardens are but few&mdash;I only know of or have
+seen two, but I hope never to see another.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more satisfactory than to see the well-designed and
+well-organised garden of the large country house, whose master loves his
+garden, and has good taste and a reasonable amount of leisure.</p>
+
+<p>I think that the first thing in such a place is to have large unbroken
+lawn spaces&mdash;all the better if they are continuous, passing round the
+south and west sides of the house. I am supposing a house of the best
+class, but not necessarily of the largest size. Immediately adjoining
+the house, except for the few feet needed for a border for climbing
+plants, is a broad walk, dry and smooth, and perfectly level from end to
+end. This, in the case of many houses, and nearly always with good
+effect, is raised two or three feet above the garden ground, and if the
+architecture of the house demands it, has a retaining wall surmounted by
+a balustrade of <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_178" name="Page_178"></a>[178]</span>masonry and wrought stone. Broad and shallow
+stone steps lead down to the turf both at the end of the walk and in the
+middle of the front of the house, the wider and shallower the better,
+and at the foot of the wall may be a narrow border for a few climbing
+plants that will here and there rise above the coping of the parapet. I
+do not think it desirable where there are stone balusters or other
+distinct architectural features to let them be smothered with climbing
+plants, but that there should be, say, a <i>Pyrus japonica</i> or an
+Escallonia, and perhaps a white Jasmine, and on a larger space perhaps a
+cut-leaved or a Claret Vine. Some of the best effects of the kind I have
+seen were where the bush, being well established, rose straight out of
+the grass, the border being unnecessary except just at the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>The large lawn space I am supposing stretches away a good distance from
+the house, and is bounded on the south and west by fine trees; away
+beyond that is all wild wood. On summer afternoons the greater part of
+the lawn expanse is in cool shade, while winter sunsets show through the
+tree stems. Towards the south-east the wood would pass into shrub
+plantations, and farther still into garden and wild orchard (of which I
+shall have something to say presently). At this end of the lawn would be
+the brilliant parterre of bedded plants, seen both from the shaded lawn
+and from the terrace, which at this end forms part of its design. Beyond
+the parterre would be a distinct <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_179" name="Page_179"></a>[179]</span>division from the farther
+garden, either of Yew or Box hedge, with bays for seats, or in the case
+of a change of level, of another terrace wall. The next space beyond
+would be the main garden for hardy plants, at its southern end leading
+into the wild orchard. This would be the place for the free garden or
+the reserve garden, or for any of the many delightful ways in which
+hardy flowers can be used; and if it happened by good fortune to have a
+stream or any means of having running water, the possibilities of
+beautiful gardening would be endless.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 266px;">
+<img src="images/178_a.jpg" width="266" height="400" alt="Garland-Rose wreathing the end of a Terrace Wall." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Garland-Rose wreathing the end of a Terrace Wall.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Beyond this again would come the kitchen garden, and after that the
+stables and the home farm. If the kitchen garden had a high wall, and
+might be entered on this side by handsome wrought-iron gates, I would
+approach it from the parterre by a broad grass walk bounded by large Bay
+trees at equal intervals to right and left. Through these to the right
+would be seen the free garden of hardy flowers.</p>
+
+<p>For the kitchen garden a space of two acres would serve a large country
+house with all that is usually grown within walls, but there should
+always be a good space outside for the rougher vegetables, as well as a
+roomy yard for compost, pits and frames, and rubbish.</p>
+
+<p>And here I wish to plead on behalf of the gardener that he should have
+all reasonable comforts and conveniences. Nothing is more frequent, even
+in good places, than to find the potting and tool sheds screwed away
+into some awkward corner, badly lighted, much <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_180" name="Page_180"></a>[180]</span>too small, and
+altogether inadequate, and the pits and frames scattered about and
+difficult to get at. Nothing is more wasteful of time, labour, or
+temper. The working parts of a large garden form a complicated
+organisation, and if the parts of the mechanism do not fit and work
+well, and are not properly eased and oiled, still more, if any are
+missing, there must be disastrous friction and damage and loss of power.
+In designing garden buildings, I always strongly urge in connection with
+the heating system a warmed potting shed and a comfortable messroom for
+the men, and over this a perfectly dry loft for drying and storing such
+matters as shading material, nets, mats, ropes, and sacks. If this can
+be warmed, so much the better. There must also be a convenient and quite
+frost-proof place for winter storing of vegetable roots and such plants
+as Dahlias, Cannas, and Gladiolus; and also a well-lighted and warmed
+workshop for all the innumerable jobs put aside for wet weather, of
+which the chief will be repainting and glazing of lights, repairing
+implements, and grinding and setting tools. This shop should have a
+carpenter's bench and screw, and a smith's anvil, and a proper
+assortment of tools. Such arrangements, well planned and thought out,
+will save much time and loss of produce, besides helping to make all the
+people employed more comfortable and happy.</p>
+
+<p>I think that a garden should never be large enough to be tiring, that if
+a large space has to be dealt <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_181" name="Page_181"></a>[181]</span>with, a great part had better be
+laid out in wood. Woodland is always charming and restful and enduringly
+beautiful, and then there is an intermediate kind of woodland that
+should be made more of&mdash;woodland of the orchard type. Why is the orchard
+put out of the way, as it generally is, in some remote region beyond the
+kitchen garden and stables? I should like the lawn, or the hardy flower
+garden, or both, to pass directly into it on one side, and to plant a
+space of several acres, not necessarily in the usual way, with orchard
+standards twenty-five feet apart in straight rows (though in many places
+the straight rows might be best), but to have groups and even groves of
+such things as Medlars and Quinces, Siberian and Chinese Crabs, Damsons,
+Prunes, Service trees, and Mountain Ash, besides Apples, Pears, and
+Cherries, in both standard and bush forms. Then alleys of Filbert and
+Cob-nut, and in the opener spaces tangles or brakes of the many
+beautiful bushy things allied to the Apple and Plum tribe&mdash;<i>Cydonia</i> and
+<i>Prunus triloba</i> and <i>Cratægus</i> of many kinds (some of them are tall
+bushes or small trees with beautiful fruits); and the wild Blackthorn,
+which, though a plum, is so nearly related to pear that pears may be
+grafted on it. And then brakes of Blackberries, especially of the
+Parsley-leaved kind, so free of growth and so generous of fruit. How is
+it that this fine native plant is almost invariably sold in nurseries as
+an American bramble? If I am mistaken in this I should be glad to be
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_182" name="Page_182"></a>[182]</span>corrected, but I believe it to be only the cut-leaved variety of
+the native <i>Rubus affinis</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I have tried the best of the American kinds, and with the exception of
+one year, when I had a few fine fruits from Kittatinny, they had been a
+failure, whereas invariably when people have told me that their American
+Blackberries have fruited well, I have found them to be the
+Parsley-leaved.</p>
+
+<p>Some members of the large Rose-Apple-Plum tribe grow to be large forest
+trees, and in my wild orchard they would go in the farther parts. The
+Bird-cherry (<i>Prunus padus</i>) grows into a tree of the largest size. A
+Mountain Ash will sometimes have a trunk two feet in diameter, and a
+head of a size to suit. The American kind, its near relation, but with
+larger leaves and still grander masses of berries, is a noble small
+tree; and the native white Beam should not be forgotten, and choice
+places should be given to Amelanchier and the lovely double Japan Apple
+(<i>Pyrus malus floribunda</i>). To give due space and effect to all these
+good things my orchard garden would run into a good many acres, but
+every year it would be growing into beauty and profit. The grass should
+be left rough, and plentifully planted with Daffodils, and with Cowslips
+if the soil is strong. The grass would be mown and made into hay in
+June, and perhaps mown once more towards the end of September. Under the
+nut-trees would be Primroses and the garden kinds of wood Hyacinths and
+Dogtooth Violets and Lily of <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_183" name="Page_183"></a>[183]</span>the Valley, and perhaps Snowdrops,
+or any of the smaller bulbs that most commended themselves to the taste
+of the master.</p>
+
+<p>Such an orchard garden, well-composed and beautifully grouped, always
+with that indispensable quality of good "drawing," would not only be a
+source of unending pleasure to those who lived in the place, but a
+valuable lesson to all who saw it; for it would show the value of the
+simple and sensible ways of using a certain class of related trees and
+bushes, and of using them with a deliberate intention of making the best
+of them, instead of the usual meaningless-nohow way of planting. This,
+in nine cases out of ten, means either ignorance or carelessness, the
+planter not caring enough about the matter to take the trouble to find
+out what is best to be done, and being quite satisfied with a mixed lot
+of shrubs, as offered in nursery sales, or with the choice of the
+nurseryman. I do not presume to condemn all mixed planting, only stupid
+and ignorant mixed planting. It is not given to all people to take their
+pleasures alike; and I have in my mind four gardens, all of the highest
+interest, in which the planting is all mixed; but then the mixture is of
+admirable ingredients, collected and placed on account of individual
+merit, and a ramble round any one of these in company with its owner is
+a pleasure and a privilege that one cannot prize too highly. Where the
+garden is of such large extent that experimental planting is made with a
+good number of one good thing <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_184" name="Page_184"></a>[184]</span>at a time, even though there was
+no premeditated intention of planting for beautiful effect, the fact of
+there being enough plants to fall into large groups, and to cover some
+extent of ground, produces numbers of excellent results. I remember
+being struck with this on several occasions when I have had the
+happiness of visiting Mr. G. F. Wilson's garden at Wisley, a garden
+which I take to be about the most instructive it is possible to see. In
+one part, where the foot of the hill joined the copse, there were hosts
+of lovely things planted on a succession of rather narrow banks. Almost
+unthinkingly I expressed the regret I felt that so much individual
+beauty should be there without an attempt to arrange it for good effect.
+Mr. Wilson stopped, and looking at me straight with a kindly smile, said
+very quietly, "That is your business, not mine." In spite of its being a
+garden whose first object is trial and experiment, it has left in my
+memory two pictures, among several lesser ones, of plant-beauty that
+will stay with me as long as I can remember anything, one an autumn and
+one a spring picture&mdash;the hedge of <i>Rosa rugosa</i> in full fruit, and a
+plantation of <i>Primula denticulata</i>. The Primrose was on a bit of level
+ground, just at the outer and inner edges of the hazel copse. The plants
+were both grouped and thinly sprinkled, just as nature plants&mdash;possibly
+they grew directly there from seed. They were in superb and luxuriant
+beauty in the black peaty-looking half-boggy earth, the handsome
+leaves <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_185" name="Page_185"></a>[185]</span>of the brilliant colour and large size that told of
+perfect health and vigour, and the large round heads of pure lilac
+flower carried on strong stalks that must have been fifteen inches high.
+I never saw it so happy and so beautiful. It is a plant I much admire,
+and I do the best I can for it on my dry hill; but the conditions of my
+garden do not allow of any approach to the success of the Wisley plants;
+still I have treasured that lesson among many others I have brought away
+from that good garden, and never fail to advise some such treatment when
+I see the likely home for it in other places.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/185_a.jpg" width="400" height="266" alt="A Roadside Cottage Garden." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A Roadside Cottage Garden.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Some of the most delightful of all gardens are the little strips in
+front of roadside cottages. They have a simple and tender charm that one
+may look for in vain in gardens of greater pretension. And the old
+garden flowers seem to know that there they are seen at their best; for
+where else can one see such Wallflowers, or Double Daisies, or White
+Rose bushes; such clustering masses of perennial Peas, or such well-kept
+flowery edgings of Pink, or Thrift, or London Pride?</p>
+
+<p>Among a good many calls for advice about laying out gardens, I remember
+an early one that was of special interest. It was the window-box of a
+factory lad in one of the great northern manufacturing towns. He had
+advertised in a mechanical paper that he wanted a tiny garden, as full
+of interest as might be, in a window-box; he knew nothing&mdash;would
+somebody <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_186" name="Page_186"></a>[186]</span>help him with advice? So advice was sent and the box
+prepared. If I remember rightly the size was three feet by ten inches. A
+little later the post brought him little plants of mossy and silvery
+saxifrages, and a few small bulbs. Even some stones were sent, for it
+was to be a rock-garden, and there were to be two hills of different
+heights with rocky tops, and a longish valley with a sunny and a shady
+side.</p>
+
+<p>It was delightful to have the boy's letters, full of keen interest and
+eager questions, and only difficult to restrain him from killing his
+plants with kindness, in the way of liberal doses of artificial manure.
+The very smallness of the tiny garden made each of its small features
+the more precious. I could picture his feeling of delightful
+anticipation when he saw the first little bluish blade of the Snowdrop
+patch pierce its mossy carpet. Would it, could it really grow into a
+real Snowdrop, with the modest, milk-white flower and the pretty green
+hearts on the outside of the inner petals, and the clear green stripes
+within? and would it really nod him a glad good-morning when he opened
+his window to greet it? And those few blunt reddish horny-looking snouts
+just coming through the ground, would they really grow into the
+brilliant blue of the early Squill, that would be like a bit of
+midsummer sky among the grimy surroundings of the attic window, and
+under that grey, soot-laden northern sky? I thought with pleasure how he
+would watch them in spare minutes of the dinner-hour spent at home, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_187" name="Page_187"></a>[187]</span>think of them as he went forward and back to his work, and how
+the remembrance of the tender beauty of the full-blown flower would make
+him glad, and lift up his heart while "minding his mule" in the busy
+restless mill.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_188" name="Page_188"></a>[188]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h4>BEGINNING AND LEARNING</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>The ignorant questioner &mdash; Beginning at the end &mdash; An example
+&mdash; Personal experience &mdash; Absence of outer help &mdash; Johns'
+"Flowers of the Field" &mdash; Collecting plants &mdash; Nurseries near
+London &mdash; Wheel-spokes as labels &mdash; Garden friends &mdash; Mr.
+Robinson's "English Flower-Garden" &mdash; Mr. Nicholson's
+"Dictionary of Gardening" &mdash; One main idea desirable &mdash;
+Pictorial treatment &mdash; Training in fine art &mdash; Adapting from
+Nature &mdash; Study of colour &mdash; Ignorant use of the word
+"artistic."</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />Many people who love flowers and wish to do some practical gardening are
+at their wit's end to know what to do and how to begin. Like a person
+who is on skates for the first time, they feel that, what with the
+bright steel runners, and the slippery surface, and the sense of
+helplessness, there are more ways of tumbling about than of progressing
+safely in any one direction. And in gardening the beginner must feel
+this kind of perplexity and helplessness, and indeed there is a great
+deal to learn, only it is pleasant instead of perilous, and the many
+tumbles by the way only teach and do not hurt. The first few steps are
+perhaps the most difficult, and it is only when we know something of the
+subject and an eager beginner comes with questions <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_189" name="Page_189"></a>[189]</span>that one
+sees how very many are the things that want knowing. And the more
+ignorant the questioner, the more difficult it is to answer helpfully.
+When one knows, one cannot help presupposing some sort of knowledge on
+the part of the querist, and where this is absent the answer we can give
+is of no use. The ignorance, when fairly complete, is of such a nature
+that the questioner does not know what to ask, and the question, even if
+it can be answered, falls upon barren ground. I think in such cases it
+is better to try and teach one simple thing at a time, and not to
+attempt to answer a number of useless questions. It is disheartening
+when one has tried to give a careful answer to have it received with an
+Oh! of boredom or disappointment, as much as to say, You can't expect me
+to take all that trouble; and there is the still more unsatisfactory
+sort of applicant, who plies a string of questions and will not wait for
+the answers! The real way is to try and learn a little from everybody
+and from every place. There is no royal road. It is no use asking me or
+any one else how to dig&mdash;I mean sitting indoors and asking it. Better go
+and watch a man digging, and then take a spade and try to do it, and go
+on trying till it comes, and you gain the knack that is to be learnt
+with all tools, of doubling the power and halving the effort; and
+meanwhile you will be learning other things, about your own arms and
+legs and back, and perhaps a little robin will come and give you moral
+support, and at the same time keep a <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_190" name="Page_190"></a>[190]</span>sharp look-out for any
+worms you may happen to turn up; and you will find out that there are
+all sorts of ways of learning, not only from people and books, but from
+sheer trying.</p>
+
+<p>I remember years ago having to learn to use the blow-pipe, for soldering
+and other purposes connected with work in gold and silver. The difficult
+part of it is to keep up the stream of air through the pipe while you
+are breathing the air in; it is easy enough when you only want a short
+blast of a few seconds, within the compass of one breath or one filling
+of the bellows (lungs), but often one has to go on blowing through
+several inspirations. It is a trick of muscular action. My master who
+taught me never could do it himself, but by much trying one day I caught
+the trick.</p>
+
+<p>The grand way to learn, in gardening as in all things else, is to wish
+to learn, and to be determined to find out&mdash;not to think that any one
+person can wave a wand and give the power and knowledge. And there will
+be plenty of mistakes, and there must be, just as children must pass
+through the usual childish complaints. And some people make the mistake
+of trying to begin at the end, and of using recklessly what may want the
+utmost caution, such, for instance, as strong chemical manures.</p>
+
+<p>Some ladies asked me why their plant had died. They had got it from the
+very best place, and they were sure they had done their very best for
+it, and&mdash;there it was, dead. I asked what it was, and how <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_191" name="Page_191"></a>[191]</span>they
+had treated it. It was some ordinary border plant, whose identity I now
+forget; they had made a nice hole with their new trowel, and for its
+sole benefit they had bought a tin of Concentrated Fertiliser. This they
+had emptied into the hole, put in the plant, and covered it up and given
+it lots of water, and&mdash;it had died! And yet these were the best and
+kindest of women, who would never have dreamed of feeding a new-born
+infant on beefsteaks and raw brandy. But they learned their lesson well,
+and at once saw the sense when I pointed out that a plant with naked
+roots just taken out of the ground or a pot, removed from one
+feeding-place and not yet at home in another, or still more after a
+journey, with the roots only wrapped in a little damp moss and paper,
+had its feeding power suspended for a time, and was in the position of a
+helpless invalid. All that could be done for it then was a little bland
+nutriment of weak slops and careful nursing; if the planting took place
+in the summer it would want shading and only very gentle watering, until
+firm root-hold was secured and root-appetite became active, and that in
+rich and well-prepared garden ground such as theirs strong artificial
+manure was in any case superfluous.</p>
+
+<p>When the earlier ignorances are overcome it becomes much easier to help
+and advise, because there is more common ground to stand on. In my own
+case, from quite a small child, I had always seen gardening going on,
+though not of a very interesting <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_192" name="Page_192"></a>[192]</span>kind. Nothing much was thought
+of but bedding plants, and there was a rather large space on each side
+of the house for these, one on gravel and one on turf. But I had my own
+little garden in a nook beyond the shrubbery, with a seat shaded by a
+<i>Boursault elegans</i> Rose, which I thought then, and still think, one of
+the loveliest of its kind. But my first knowledge of hardy plants came
+through wild ones. Some one gave me that excellent book, the Rev. C. A.
+Johns' "Flowers of the Field." For many years I had no one to advise me
+(I was still quite small) how to use the book, or how to get to know
+(though it stared me in the face) how the plants were in large related
+families, and I had not the sense to do it for myself, nor to learn the
+introductory botanical part, which would have saved much trouble
+afterwards; but when I brought home my flowers I would take them one by
+one and just turn over the pages till I came to the picture that looked
+something like. But in this way I got a knowledge of individuals, and
+afterwards the idea of broad classification and relationship of genera
+to species may have come all the easier. I always think of that book as
+the most precious gift I ever received. I distinctly trace to its
+teaching my first firm steps in the path of plant knowledge, and the
+feeling of assured comfort I had afterwards in recognising the kinds
+when I came to collect garden plants; for at that time I had no other
+garden book, no means of access to botanic gardens or private
+collections, and no helpful adviser.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_193" name="Page_193"></a>[193]</span>One copy of "Johns" I wore right out; I have now two, of which
+one is in its second binding, and is always near me for reference. I
+need hardly say that this was long before the days of the "English
+Flower-Garden," or its helpful predecessor, "Alpine Plants."</p>
+
+<p>By this time I was steadily collecting hardy garden plants wherever I
+could find them, mostly from cottage gardens. Many of them were still
+unknown to me by name, but as the collection increased I began to
+compare and discriminate, and of various kinds of one plant to throw out
+the worse and retain the better, and to train myself to see what made a
+good garden plant, and about then began to grow the large yellow and
+white bunch Primroses, whose history is in another chapter. And then I
+learnt that there were such places (though then but few) as nurseries,
+where such plants as I had been collecting in the cottage gardens, and
+even better, were grown. And I went to Osborne's at Fulham (now all
+built over), and there saw the original tree of the fine Ilex known as
+the Fulham Oak, and several spring-flowering bulbs I had never seen
+before, and what I felt sure were numbers of desirable summer-flowering
+plants, but not then in bloom. Soon after this I began to learn
+something about Daffodils, and enjoyed much kind help from Mr. Barr,
+visiting his nursery (then at Tooting) several times, and sometimes
+combining a visit to Parker's nursery just over the way, a perfect
+paradise of good hardy plants. I shall never forget my first sight
+here <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_194" name="Page_194"></a>[194]</span>of the Cape Pondweed (<i>Aponogeton distachyon</i>) in full
+flower and great vigour in the dipping tanks, and overflowing from them
+into the ditches.</p>
+
+<p>Also I was delighted to see the use as labels of old wheel-spokes. I
+could not help feeling that if one had been a spoke of a cab-wheel, and
+had passed all one's working life in being whirled and clattered over
+London pavements, defiled with street mud, how pleasant a way to end
+one's days was this; to have one's felloe end pointed and dipped in nice
+wholesome rot-resisting gas-tar and thrust into the quiet cool earth,
+and one's nave end smoothed and painted and inscribed with some such
+soothing legend as <i>Vinca minor</i> or <i>Dianthus fragrans</i>!</p>
+
+<p>Later I made acquaintance with several of the leading amateur and
+professional gardeners, and with Mr. Robinson, and to their good
+comradeship and kindly willingness to let me "pick their brains" I owe a
+great advance in garden lore. Moreover, what began by the drawing
+together of a common interest has grown into a still greater benefit,
+for several acquaintances so made have ripened into steady and
+much-valued friendships. It has been a great interest to me to have had
+the privilege of watching the gradual growth, through its several
+editions, of Mr. Robinson's "English Flower-Garden," the one best and
+most helpful book of all for those who want to know about hardy flowers,
+offering as it does in the clearest and easiest way a knowledge of the
+garden-treasures <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_195" name="Page_195"></a>[195]</span>of the temperate world. No one who has not
+had occasional glimpses behind the scenes can know how much labour and
+thought such a book represents, to say nothing of research and practical
+experiment, and of the trouble and great expense of producing the large
+amount of pictorial illustration. Another book, though on quite
+different lines, that I find most useful is Mr. Nicholson's "Illustrated
+Dictionary of Gardening," in eight handy volumes. It covers much the
+same ground as the useful old Johnson's "Gardener's Dictionary," but is
+much more complete and comprehensive, and is copiously illustrated with
+excellent wood-cuts. It is the work of a careful and learned botanist,
+treating of all plants desirable for cultivation from all climates, and
+teaching all branches of practical horticulture and such useful matters
+as means of dealing with insect pests. The old "Johnson" is still a
+capital book in one volume; mine is rather out of date, being the
+edition of 1875, but it has been lately revised and improved. It would
+be delightful to possess, or to have easy access to, a good botanical
+library; still, for all the purposes of the average garden lover, these
+books will suffice.</p>
+
+<p>I think it is desirable, when a certain degree of knowledge of plants
+and facility of dealing with them has been acquired, to get hold of a
+clear idea of what one most wishes to do. The scope of the subject is so
+wide, and there are so many ways to choose from, that having one general
+idea helps one to concentrate <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_196" name="Page_196"></a>[196]</span>thought and effort that would
+otherwise be wasted by being diluted and dribbled through too many
+probable channels of waste.</p>
+
+<p>Ever since it came to me to feel some little grasp of knowledge of means
+and methods, I have found that my greatest pleasure, both in garden and
+woodland, has been in the enjoyment of beauty of a pictorial kind.
+Whether the picture be large as of a whole landscape, or of lesser
+extent as in some fine single group or effect, or within the space of
+only a few inches as may be seen in some happily-disposed planting of
+Alpines, the intention is always the same; or whether it is the grouping
+of trees in the wood by the removal of those whose lines are not wanted
+in the picture, or in the laying out of broad grassy ways in woody
+places, or by ever so slight a turn or change of direction in a wood
+path, or in the alteration of some arrangement of related groups for
+form or for massing of light and shade, or for any of the many local
+conditions that guide one towards forming a decision, the intention is
+still always the same&mdash;to try and make a beautiful garden-picture. And
+little as I can as yet boast of being able to show anything like the
+number of these I could wish, yet during the flower-year there is
+generally something that at least in part answers to the effort.</p>
+
+<p>I do not presume to urge the acceptance of my own particular form of
+pleasure in a garden on those to whom, from different temperament or
+manner of <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_197" name="Page_197"></a>[197]</span>education, it would be unwelcome; I only speak of
+what I feel, and to a certain degree understand; but I had the advantage
+in earlier life of some amount of training in appreciation of the fine
+arts, and this, working upon an inborn feeling of reverent devotion to
+things of the highest beauty in the works of God, has helped me to an
+understanding of their divinely-inspired interpretations by the noblest
+minds of men, into those other forms that we know as works of fine art.</p>
+
+<p>And so it comes about that those of us who feel and understand in this
+way do not exactly attempt to imitate Nature in our gardens, but try to
+become well acquainted with her moods and ways, and then discriminate in
+our borrowing, and so interpret her methods as best we may to the making
+of our garden-pictures.</p>
+
+<p>I have always had great delight in the study of colour, as the word is
+understood by artists, which again is not a positive matter, but one of
+relation and proportion. And when one hears the common chatter about
+"artistic colours," one receives an unpleasant impression about the
+education and good taste of the speaker; and one is reminded of an old
+saying which treats of the unwisdom of rushing in "where angels fear to
+tread," and of regret that a good word should be degraded by misuse. It
+may be safely said that no colour can be called artistic in itself; for,
+in the first place, it is bad English, and in the second, it is
+nonsense. Even if the first objection were waived, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_198" name="Page_198"></a>[198]</span>and the
+second condoned, it could only be used in a secondary sense, as
+signifying something that is useful and suitable and right in its place.
+In this limited sense the scarlet of the soldier's coat, and of the
+pillar-box and mail-cart, and the bright colours of flags, or of the
+port and starboard lights of ships, might be said to be just so far
+"artistic" (again if grammar would allow), as they are right and good in
+their places. But then those who use the word in the usual ignorant,
+random way have not even this simple conception of its meaning. Those
+who know nothing about colour in the more refined sense (and like a
+knowledge of everything else it wants learning) get no farther than to
+enjoy it only when most crude and garish&mdash;when, as George Herbert says,
+it "bids the rash gazer wipe his eye," or when there is some violent
+opposition of complementary colour&mdash;forgetting, or not knowing, that
+though in detail the objects brought together may make each other appear
+brighter, yet in the mass, and especially when mixed up, the one
+actually neutralises the other. And they have no idea of using the
+colour of flowers as precious jewels in a setting of quiet environment,
+or of suiting the colour of flowering groups to that of the neighbouring
+foliage, thereby enhancing the value of both, or of massing related or
+harmonious colourings so as to lead up to the most powerful and
+brilliant effects; and yet all these are just the ways of employing
+colour to the best advantage.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_199" name="Page_199"></a>[199]</span>But the most frequent fault, whether in composition or in
+colour, is the attempt to crowd too much into the picture; the simpler
+effect obtained by means of temperate and wise restraint is always the
+more telling.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_200" name="Page_200"></a>[200]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h4>THE FLOWER-BORDER AND PERGOLA</h4>
+
+<blockquote><p>The flower-border &mdash; The wall and its occupants &mdash; <i>Choisya
+ternata</i> &mdash; Nandina &mdash; Canon Ellacombe's garden &mdash; Treatment of
+colour-masses &mdash; Arrangement of plants in the border &mdash; Dahlias
+and Cannas &mdash; Covering bare places &mdash; The pergola &mdash; How made
+&mdash; Suitable climbers &mdash; Arbours of trained Planes &mdash; Garden
+houses.</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p><br />I have a rather large "mixed border of hardy flowers." It is not quite
+so hopelessly mixed as one generally sees, and the flowers are not all
+hardy; but as it is a thing everybody rightly expects, and as I have
+been for a good many years trying to puzzle out its wants and ways, I
+will try and describe my own and its surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>There is a sandstone wall of pleasant colour at the back, nearly eleven
+feet high. This wall is an important feature in the garden, as it is the
+dividing line between the pleasure garden and the working garden; also,
+it shelters the pleasure garden from the sweeping blasts of wind from
+the north-west, to which my ground is much exposed, as it is all on a
+gentle slope, going downward towards the north. At the foot of the wall
+is a narrow border three feet six inches wide, and then a narrow alley,
+not a made path, but just a way to go <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_201" name="Page_201"></a>[201]</span>along for tending the
+wall shrubs, and for getting at the back of the border. This little
+alley does not show from the front. Then the main border, fourteen feet
+wide and two hundred feet long. About three-quarters of the way along a
+path cuts through the border, and passes by an arched gateway in the
+wall to the Pæony garden and the working garden beyond. Just here I
+thought it would be well to mound up the border a little, and plant with
+groups of Yuccas, so that at all times of the year there should be
+something to make a handsome full-stop to the sections of the border,
+and to glorify the doorway. The two extreme ends of the border are
+treated in the same way with Yuccas on rather lesser mounds, only
+leaving space beyond them for the entrance to the little alley at the
+back.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/200_a.jpg" width="400" height="263" alt="A Flower-border in June." title="" />
+<span class="caption">A Flower-border in June.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The wall and border face two points to the east of south, or, as a
+sailor would say, south-south-east, half-way between south and
+south-east. In front of the border runs a path seven feet wide, and
+where the border stops at the eastern end it still runs on another sixty
+feet, under the pergola, to the open end of a summer-house. The wall at
+its western end returns forward, square with its length, and hides out
+greenhouses, sheds, and garden yard. The path in front of the border
+passes through an arch into this yard, but there is no view into the
+yard, as it is blocked by some Yews planted in a quarter-circle.</p>
+
+<p>Though wall-space is always precious, I thought it <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_202" name="Page_202"></a>[202]</span>better to
+block out this shorter piece of return wall on the garden side with a
+hedge of Yews. They are now nearly the height of the wall, and will be
+allowed to grow a little higher, and will eventually be cut into an arch
+over the arch in the wall. I wanted the sombre duskiness of the Yews as
+a rich, quiet background for the brightness of the flowers, though they
+are rather disappointing in May and June, when their young shoots are of
+a bright and lively green. At the eastern end of the border there is no
+return wall, but another planting of Yews equal to the depth of the
+border. Notched into them is a stone seat about ten feet long; as they
+grow they will be clipped so as to make an arching hood over the seat.</p>
+
+<p>The wall is covered with climbers, or with non-climbing shrubs treated
+as wall-plants. They do not all want the wall for warmth or protection,
+but are there because I want them there; because, thinking over what
+things would look best and give me the greatest pleasure, these came
+among them. All the same, the larger number of the plants on the wall do
+want it, and would not do without it. At the western end, the only part
+which is in shade for the greater part of the day, is a <i>Garrya
+elliptica</i>. So many of my garden friends like a quiet journey along the
+wall to see what is there, that I propose to do the like by my reader;
+so first for the wall, and then for the border. Beyond the <i>Garrya</i>, in
+the extreme angle, is a <i>Clematis montana</i>. When the <i>Garrya</i> is more
+grown there will <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_203" name="Page_203"></a>[203]</span>not be much room left for the Clematis, but
+then it will have become bare below, and can ramble over the wall on the
+north side, and, in any case, it is a plant with a not very long
+lifetime, and will be nearly or quite worn out before its root-space is
+reached or wanted by its neighbours. Next on the wall is the beautiful
+Rose Acacia (<i>Robinia hispida</i>). It is perfectly hardy, but the wood is
+so brittle that it breaks off short with the slightest weight of wind or
+snow or rain. I never could understand why a hardy shrub was created so
+brittle, or how it behaves in its native place. I look in my
+"Nicholson," and see that it comes from North America. Now, North
+America is a large place, and there may be in it favoured spots where
+there is no snow, and only the very gentlest rain, and so well sheltered
+that the wind only blows in faintest breaths; and to judge by its
+behaviour in our gardens, all these conditions are necessary for its
+well-being. This troublesome quality of brittleness no doubt accounts
+for its being so seldom seen in gardens. I began to think it hopeless
+when, after three plantings in the open, it was again wrecked, but at
+last had the happy idea of training it on a wall. Even there, though it
+is looked over and tied in twice a year, a branch or two often gets
+broken. But I do not regret having given it the space, as the wall could
+hardly have had a better ornament, so beautiful are its rosy
+flower-clusters and pale-green leaves. As it inclines to be leggy below,
+I have trained a Crimson <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_204" name="Page_204"></a>[204]</span>Rambler Rose over the lower part,
+tying it in to any bare places in the <i>Robinia</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/202top_a.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="Pathway across the South Border in July." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Pathway across the South Border in July.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image202" name="image202"></a>
+<img src="images/202bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="Outside View of the Brick Pergola shown at Page 214,
+after Six Years&#39; Growth." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Outside View of the Brick Pergola shown at Page <a href="#image214">214</a>,
+after Six Years&#39; Growth.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Next along the wall is <i>Solanum crispum</i>, much to be recommended in our
+southern counties. It covers a good space of wall, and every year shoots
+up some feet above it; indeed it is such a lively grower that it has to
+endure a severe yearly pruning. Every season it is smothered with its
+pretty clusters of potato-shaped bloom of a good bluish-lilac colour.
+After these I wanted some solid-looking dark evergreens, so there is a
+Loquat, with its splendid foliage equalling that of <i>Magnolia
+grandiflora</i>, and then Black Laurustinus, Bay, and Japan Privet; and
+from among this dark-leaved company shoots up the tender green of a
+Banksian Rose, grown from seed of the single kind, the gift of my kind
+friend Commendatore Hanbury, whose world-famed garden of La Mortola,
+near Ventimiglia, probably contains the most remarkable collection of
+plants and shrubs that have ever been brought together by one man. This
+Rose has made good growth, and a first few flowers last year&mdash;seedling
+Roses are slow to bloom&mdash;lead me to expect a good show next season.</p>
+
+<p>In the narrow border at the foot of the wall is a bush of <i>Raphiolepis
+ovata</i>, always to me an interesting shrub, with its thick, roundish,
+leathery leaves and white flower-clusters, also bushes of Rosemary, some
+just filling the border, and some trained up the wall. Our Tudor
+ancestors were fond of Rosemary-covered walls, and I have seen old
+bushes quite ten feet high <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_205" name="Page_205"></a>[205]</span>on the garden walls of Italian
+monasteries. Among the Rosemaries I always like, if possible, to "tickle
+in" a China Rose or two, the tender pink of the Rose seems to go so well
+with the dark but dull-surfaced Rosemary. Then still in the wall-border
+comes a long straggling mass of that very pretty and interesting
+herbaceous Clematis, <i>C. Davidiana</i>. The colour of its flower always
+delights me; it is of an unusual kind of greyish-blue, of very tender
+and lovely quality. It does well in this warm border, growing about
+three feet high. Then on the wall come <i>Pyrus Maulei</i> and
+<i>Chimonanthus</i>, Claret-Vine, and the large-flowered <i>Ceanothus</i> Gloire
+de Versailles, hardy <i>Fuchsia</i>, and <i>Magnolia Soulangeana</i>, ending with
+a big bush of <i>Choisya ternata</i>, and rambling above it a very fine kind
+of <i>Bignonia grandiflora</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Then comes the archway, flanked by thick buttresses. A Choisya was
+planted just beyond each of these, but it has grown wide and high,
+spreading across the face of the buttress on each side, and considerably
+invading the pathway. There is no better shrub here than this delightful
+Mexican plant; its long whippy roots ramble through our light soil with
+every sign of enjoyment; it always looks clean and healthy and well
+dressed, and as for its lovely and deliciously sweet flowers, we cut
+them by the bushel, and almost by the faggot, and the bushes scarcely
+look any the emptier.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the archway comes the shorter length of wall and border. For
+convenience I planted all slightly tender things together on this bit of
+wall and <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_206" name="Page_206"></a>[206]</span>border; then we make one job of covering the whole
+with fir-boughs for protection in winter. On the wall are <i>Piptanthus
+nepalensis</i>, <i>Cistus ladaniferus</i>, <i>Edwardsia grandiflora</i>, and another
+Loquat, and in the border a number of Hydrangeas, <i>Clerodendron
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'f&oelig;tidium'">f&oelig;tidum</ins></i>, <i>Crinums</i>, and <i>Nandina domestica</i>, the Chinese so-called
+sacred Bamboo. It is not a Bamboo at all, but allied to <i>Berberis</i>; the
+Chinese plant it for good luck near their houses. If it is as lucky as
+it is pretty, it ought to do one good! I first made acquaintance with
+this beautiful plant in Canon Ellacombe's most interesting garden at
+Bitton, in Gloucestershire, where it struck me as one of the most
+beautiful growing things I had ever seen, the beauty being mostly in the
+form and colouring of the leaves. It is not perhaps a plant for
+everybody, and barely hardly; it seems slow to get hold, and its full
+beauty only shows when it is well established, and throws up its
+wonderfully-coloured leaves on tall bamboo-like stalks.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing much more difficult to do in outdoor gardening than to
+plant a mixed border well, and to keep it in beauty throughout the
+summer. Every year, as I gain more experience, and, I hope, more power
+of critical judgment, I find myself tending towards broader and simpler
+effects, both of grouping and colour. I do not know whether it is by
+individual preference, or in obedience to some colour-law that I can
+instinctively feel but cannot pretend even to understand, and much less
+to explain, but in practice I always find more satisfaction and facility
+in treating the warm <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_207" name="Page_207"></a>[207]</span>colours (reds and yellows) in graduated
+harmonies, culminating into gorgeousness, and the cool ones in
+contrasts; especially in the case of blue, which I like to use either in
+distinct but not garish contrasts, as of full blue with pale yellow, or
+in separate cloud-like harmonies, as of lilac and pale purple with grey
+foliage. I am never so much inclined to treat the blues, purples, and
+lilacs in gradations together as I am the reds and yellows. Purples and
+lilacs I can put together, but not these with blues; and the pure blues
+always seem to demand peculiar and very careful treatment.</p>
+
+<p>The western end of the flower-border begins with the low bank of Yuccas,
+then there are some rather large masses of important grey and glaucous
+foliage and pale and full pink flower. The foliage is mostly of the
+Globe Artichoke, and nearer the front of <i>Artemisia</i> and <i>Cineraria
+maritima</i>. Among this, pink Canterbury Bell, Hollyhock, Phlox,
+Gladiolus, and Japan Anemone, all in pink colourings, will follow one
+another in due succession. Then come some groups of plants bearing
+whitish and very pale flowers, <i>Polygonum compactum</i>, <i>Aconitum
+lycoctonum</i>, Double Meadowsweet, and other Spiræas, and then the colour
+passes to pale yellow of Mulleins, and with them the palest blue
+Delphiniums. Towards the front is a wide planting of <i>Iris pallida
+dalmatica</i>, its handsome bluish foliage showing as outstanding and yet
+related masses with regard to the first large group of pale foliage.
+Then comes the pale-yellow <i>Iris flavescens</i>, and meanwhile <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_208" name="Page_208"></a>[208]</span>the
+group of Delphinium deepens into those of a fuller blue colour, though
+none of the darkest are here. Then more pale yellow of Mullein,
+Thalictrum, and Paris Daisy, and so the colour passes to stronger
+yellows. These change into orange, and from that to brightest scarlet
+and crimson, coming to the fullest strength in the Oriental Poppies of
+the earlier year, and later in Lychnis, Gladiolus, Scarlet Dahlia, and
+Tritoma. The colour-scheme then passes again through orange and yellow
+to the paler yellows, and so again to blue and warm white, where it
+meets one of the clumps of Yuccas flanking the path that divides this
+longer part of the border from the much shorter piece beyond. This
+simple procession of colour arrangement has occupied a space of a
+hundred and sixty feet, and the border is all the better for it.</p>
+
+<p>The short length of border beyond the gateway has again Yuccas and
+important pale foliage, and a preponderance of pink bloom, Hydrangea for
+the most part; but there are a few tall Mulleins, whose pale-yellow
+flowers group well with the ivory of the Yucca spikes and the clear pink
+of the tall Hollyhocks. These all show up well over the masses of grey
+and glaucous foliage, and against the rich darkness of dusky Yew.</p>
+
+<p>Dahlias and Cannas have their places in the mixed border. When it is
+being dismantled in the late autumn all bare places are well dug and
+enriched, so that when it comes to filling-up time, at the end of May, I
+know that every spare bit of space is ready <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_209" name="Page_209"></a>[209]</span>and at the time of
+preparation I mark places for special Dahlias, according to colour, and
+for groups of the tall Cannas where I want grand foliage.</p>
+
+<p>There are certain classes of plants that are quite indispensable, but
+that leave a bare or shabby-looking place when their bloom is over. How
+to cover these places is one of the problems that have to be solved. The
+worst offender is Oriental Poppy; it becomes unsightly soon after
+blooming, and is quite gone by midsummer. I therefore plant <i>Gypsophila
+paniculata</i> between and behind the Poppy groups, and by July there is a
+delicate cloud of bloom instead of large bare patches. <i>Eryngium
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Olivieranum'">Oliverianum</ins></i> has turned brown by the beginning of July, but around the
+group some Dahlias have been planted, that will be gradually trained
+down over the space of the departed Sea-Holly, and other Dahlias are
+used in the same way to mask various weak places.</p>
+
+<p>There is a perennial Sunflower, with tall black stems, and pale-yellow
+flowers quite at the top, an old garden sort, but not very good as
+usually grown; this I find of great value to train down, when it throws
+up a short flowering stem from each joint, and becomes a spreading sheet
+of bloom.</p>
+
+<p>One would rather not have to resort to these artifices of sticking and
+training; but if a certain effect is wanted, all such means are lawful,
+provided that nothing looks stiff or strained or unsightly; and it is
+pleasant to exercise ingenuity and to invent ways to <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_210" name="Page_210"></a>[210]</span>meet the
+needs of any case that may arise. But like everything else, in good
+gardening it must be done just right, and the artist-gardener finds that
+hardly the placing of a single plant can be deputed to any other hand
+than his own; for though, when it is done, it looks quite simple and
+easy, he must paint his own picture himself&mdash;no one can paint it for
+him.</p>
+
+<p>I have no dogmatic views about having in the so-called hardy
+flower-border none but hardy flowers. All flowers are welcome that are
+right in colour, and that make a brave show where a brave show is
+wanted. It is of more importance that the border should be handsome than
+that all its occupants should be hardy. Therefore I prepare a certain
+useful lot of half-hardy annuals, and a few of what have come to be
+called bedding-plants. I like to vary them a little from year to year,
+because in no one season can I get in all the good flowers that I should
+like to grow; and I think it better to leave out some one year and have
+them the next, than to crowd any up, or to find I have plants to put out
+and no space to put them in. But I nearly always grow these half-hardy
+annuals; orange African Marigold, French Marigold, sulphur Sunflower,
+orange and scarlet tall Zinnia, Nasturtiums, both dwarf and trailing,
+<i>Nicotiana affinis</i>, Maize, and Salpiglossis. Then Stocks and China
+Asters. The Stocks are always the large white and flesh-coloured summer
+kinds, and the Asters, the White Comet, and one of the blood-red or
+so-called scarlet sorts.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_211" name="Page_211"></a>[211]</span>Then I have yellow Paris Daisies, <i>Salvia patens</i>, Heliotrope,
+<i>Calceolaria amplexicaulis</i>, Geraniums, scarlet and salmon-coloured and
+ivy-leaved kinds, the best of these being the pink Madame Crousse.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/210top_a.jpg" width="400" height="299" alt="End of Flower-border and Entrance of Pergola." title="" />
+<span class="caption">End of Flower-border and Entrance of Pergola.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image210" name="image210"></a>
+<img src="images/210bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="295" alt="South Border Door and Yuccas in August." title="" />
+<span class="caption">South Border Door and Yuccas in August.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The front edges of the border are also treated in rather a large way. At
+the shadier end there is first a long straggling bordering patch of
+<i>Anemone sylvestris</i>. When it is once above ground the foliage remains
+good till autumn, while its soft white flower comes right with the
+colour of the flowers behind. Then comes a long and large patch of the
+larger kind of <i>Megasea cordifolia</i>, several yards in length, and
+running back here and there among taller plants. I am never tired of
+admiring the fine solid foliage of this family of plants, remaining, as
+it does, in beauty both winter and summer, and taking on a splendid
+winter colouring of warm red bronze. It is true that the flowers of the
+two best-known kinds, <i>M. cordifolia</i> and <i>M. crassifolia</i>, are
+coarse-looking blooms of a strong and rank quality of pink colour, but
+the persistent beauty of the leaves more than compensates; and in the
+rather tenderer kind, <i>M. ligulata</i> and its varieties, the colour of the
+flower is delightful, of a delicate good pink, with almost scarlet
+stalks. There is nothing flimsy or temporary-looking about the Megaseas,
+but rather a sort of grave and monumental look that specially fits them
+for association with masonry, or for any place where a solid-looking
+edging or full-stop is wanted. To go back to those in the edge of the
+border: if the edging <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_212" name="Page_212"></a>[212]</span>threatens to look too dark and hard, I
+plant among or just behind the plants that compose it, pink or scarlet
+Ivy Geranium or trailing Nasturtium, according to the colour demanded by
+the neighbouring group. <i>Heuchera Richardsoni</i> is another good
+front-edge plant; and when we come to the blue and pale-yellow group
+there is a planting of <i>Funkia grandiflora</i>, whose fresh-looking
+pale-green leaves are delightful with the brilliant light yellow of
+<i>Calceolaria amplexicaulis</i>, and the farther-back planting of pale-blue
+Delphinium, Mullein, and sulphur Sunflower; while the same colour of
+foliage is repeated in the fresh green of the Indian Corn. Small spaces
+occur here and there along the extreme front edge, and here are planted
+little jewels of colour, of blue Lobelia, or dwarf Nasturtium, or
+anything of the colour that the place demands.</p>
+
+<p>The whole thing sounds much more elaborate than it really is; the
+trained eye sees what is wanted, and the trained hand does it, both by
+an acquired instinct. It is painting a picture with living plants.</p>
+
+<p>I much enjoy the pergola at the end of the sunny path. It is pleasant
+while walking in full sunshine, and when that sunny place feels just a
+little too hot, to look into its cool depth, and to feel that one has
+only to go a few steps farther to be in shade, and to feel that little
+air of wind that the moving summer clouds say is not far off, and is
+only unfelt just here because it is stopped by the wall. It feels
+wonderfully dark at first, this gallery of cool greenery, passing into
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_213" name="Page_213"></a>[213]</span>it with one's eyes full of light and colour, and the open-sided
+summer-house at the end looks like a black cavern; but on going into it,
+and sitting down on one of its broad, low benches, one finds that it is
+a pleasant subdued light, just right to read by.</p>
+
+<p>The pergola has two openings out of it on the right, and one on the
+left. The first way out on the right is straight into the nut-walk,
+which leads up to very near the house. The second goes up two or three
+low, broad steps made of natural sandstone flags, between groups of
+Ferns, into the Michaelmas Daisy garden. The opening on the left leads
+into a quiet space of grass the width of the flower and wall border
+(twenty feet), having only some peat-beds planted with Kalmia. This is
+backed by a Yew hedge in continuation of the main wall, and it will soon
+grow into a cool, quiet bit of garden, seeming to belong to the pergola.
+Now, standing midway in the length of the covered walk, with the eye
+rested and refreshed by the leafy half-light, on turning round again
+towards the border it shows as a brilliant picture through the bowery
+framing, and the value of the simple method of using the colours is seen
+to full advantage.</p>
+
+<p>I do not like a mean pergola, made of stuff as thin as hop-poles. If
+means or materials do not admit of having anything better, it is far
+better to use these in some other simple way, of which there are many to
+choose from&mdash;such as uprights at even intervals, braced together with a
+continuous rail at about four feet from <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_214" name="Page_214"></a>[214]</span>the ground, and another
+rail just clear of the ground, and some simple trellis of the smaller
+stuff between these two rails. This is always pretty at the back of a
+flower-border in any modest garden. But a pergola should be more
+seriously treated, and the piers at any rate should be of something
+rather large&mdash;either oak stems ten inches thick, or, better still, of
+fourteen-inch brickwork painted with lime-wash to a quiet stone-colour.
+In Italy the piers are often of rubble masonry, either round or square
+in section, coated with very coarse plaster, and lime-washed white. For
+a pergola of moderate size the piers should stand in pairs across the
+path, with eight feet clear between. Ten feet from pier to pier along
+the path is a good proportion, or anything from eight to ten feet, and
+they should stand seven feet two inches out of the ground. Each pair
+should be tied across the top with a strong beam of oak, either of the
+natural shape, or roughly adzed on the four faces; but in any case, the
+ends of the beams, where they rest on the top of the piers, should be
+adzed flat to give them a firm seat. If the beams are slightly curved or
+cambered, as most trunks of oak are, so much the better, but they must
+always be placed camber side up. The pieces that run along the top, with
+the length of the path, may be of any branching tops of oak, or of larch
+poles. These can easily be replaced as they decay; but the replacing of
+a beam is a more difficult matter, so that it is well to let them be
+fairly durable from the beginning.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/214top_a.jpg" width="400" height="298" alt="Stone-built Pergola with Wrought Oak Beams." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Stone-built Pergola with Wrought Oak Beams.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image214" name="image214"></a>
+<img src="images/214bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="299" alt="Pergola with Brick Piers and Beams of Rough Oak. (See opposite page 202.)" title="" />
+<span class="caption">Pergola with Brick Piers and Beams of Rough Oak. <br />(See opposite page <a href="#image202">202</a>.)</span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_215" name="Page_215"></a>[215]</span>The climbers I find best for covering the pergola are Vines,
+Jasmine, Aristolochia, Virginia Creeper, and Wistaria. Roses are about
+the worst, for they soon run up leggy, and only flower at the top out of
+sight.</p>
+
+<p>A sensible arrangement, allied to the pergola, and frequent in Germany
+and Switzerland, is made by planting young Planes, pollarding them at
+about eight feet from the ground, and training down the young growths
+horizontally till they have covered the desired roof-space.</p>
+
+<p>There is much to be done in our better-class gardens in the way of
+pretty small structures thoroughly well-designed and built. Many a large
+lawn used every afternoon in summer as a family playground and place to
+receive visitors would have its comfort and usefulness greatly increased
+by a pretty garden-house, instead of the usual hot and ugly, crampy and
+uncomfortable tent. But it should be thoroughly well designed to suit
+the house and garden. A pigeon-cote would come well in the upper part,
+and the face or faces open to the lawn might be closed in winter with
+movable shutters, when it would make a useful store-place for garden
+seats and much else.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_216" name="Page_216"></a>[216]</div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<h4>THE PRIMROSE GARDEN</h4>
+
+<p><br />It must be some five-and-twenty years ago that I began to work at what I
+may now call my own strain of Primroses, improving it a little every
+year by careful selection of the best for seed. The parents of the
+strain were a named kind, called Golden Plover, and a white one, without
+name, that I found in a cottage garden. I had also a dozen plants about
+eight or nine years ago from a strong strain of Mr. Anthony Waterer's
+that was running on nearly the same lines; but a year later, when I had
+flowered them side by side, I liked my own one rather the best, and Mr.
+Waterer, seeing them soon after, approved of them so much that he took
+some to work with his own. I hold Mr. Waterer's strain in great
+admiration, and, though I tried for a good many years, never could come
+near him in red colourings. But as my own taste favoured the
+delicately-shaded flowers, and the ones most liked in the nursery seemed
+to be those with strongly contrasting eye, it is likely that the two
+strains may be working still farther apart.</p>
+
+<p>They are, broadly speaking, white and yellow <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_217" name="Page_217"></a>[217]</span>varieties of the
+strong bunch-flowered or Polyanthus kind, but they vary in detail so
+much, in form, colour, habit, arrangement, and size of eye and shape of
+edge, that one year thinking it might be useful to classify them I tried
+to do so, but gave it up after writing out the characters of sixty
+classes! Their possible variation seems endless. Every year among the
+seedlings there appear a number of charming flowers with some new
+development of size, or colour of flower, or beauty of foliage, and yet
+all within the narrow bounds of&mdash;white and yellow Primroses.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/217_a.jpg" width="400" height="265" alt="Evening in the Primrose Garden." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Evening in the Primrose Garden.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Their time of flowering is much later than that of the true or
+single-stalked Primrose. They come into bloom early in April, though a
+certain number of poorly-developed flowers generally come much earlier,
+and they are at their best in the last two weeks of April and the first
+days of May. When the bloom wanes, and is nearly overtopped by the
+leaves, the time has come that I find best for dividing and replanting.
+The plants then seem willing to divide, some almost falling apart in
+one's hands, and the new roots may be seen just beginning to form at the
+base of the crown. The plants are at the same time relieved of the
+crowded mass of flower-stem, and, therefore, of the exhausting effort of
+forming seed, a severe drain on their strength. A certain number will
+not have made more than one strong crown, and a few single-crown plants
+have not flowered; these, of course, do not divide. During the flowering
+time I keep a <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_218" name="Page_218"></a>[218]</span>good look-out for those that I judge to be the
+most beautiful and desirable, and mark them for seed. These are also
+taken up, but are kept apart, the flower stems reduced to one or two of
+the most promising, and they are then planted in a separate place&mdash;some
+cool nursery corner. I find that the lifting and replanting in no way
+checks the growth or well-being of the seed-pods.</p>
+
+<p>I remember some years ago a warm discussion in the gardening papers
+about the right time to sow the seed. Some gardeners of high standing
+were strongly for sowing it as soon as ripe, while others equally
+trustworthy advised holding it over till March. I have tried both ways,
+and have satisfied myself that it is a matter for experiment and
+decision in individual gardens. As nearly as I can make out, it is well
+in heavy soils to sow when ripe, and in light ones to wait till March.
+In some heavy soils Primroses stand well for two years without division;
+whereas in light ones, such as mine, they take up the food within reach
+in a much shorter time, so that by the second year the plant has become
+a crowded mass of weak crowns that only throw up poor flowers, and are
+by then so much exhausted that they are not worth dividing afterwards.
+In my own case, having tried both ways, I find the March sown ones much
+the best.</p>
+
+<p>The seed is sown in boxes in cold frames, and pricked out again into
+boxes when large enough to handle. The seedlings are planted out in
+June, when <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_219" name="Page_219"></a>[219]</span>they seem to go on without any check whatever, and
+are just right for blooming next spring.</p>
+
+<p>The Primrose garden is in a place by itself&mdash;a clearing half shaded by
+Oak, Chestnut, and Hazel. I always think of the Hazel as a kind nurse to
+Primroses; in the copses they generally grow together, and the finest
+Primrose plants are often nestled close in to the base of the nut-stool.
+Three paths run through the Primrose garden, mere narrow tracks between
+the beds, converging at both ends, something like the lines of longitude
+on a globe, the ground widening in the middle where there are two
+good-sized Oaks, and coming to a blunt point at each end, the only other
+planting near it being two other long-shaped strips of Lily of the
+Valley.</p>
+
+<p>Every year, before replanting, the Primrose ground is dug over and well
+manured. All day for two days I sit on a low stool dividing the plants;
+a certain degree of facility and expertness has come of long practice.
+The "rubber" for frequent knife-sharpening is in a pail of water by my
+side; the lusciously fragrant heap of refuse leaf and flower-stem and
+old stocky root rises in front of me, changing its shape from a heap to
+a ridge, as when it comes to a certain height and bulk I back and back
+away from it. A boy feeds me with armfuls of newly-dug-up plants, two
+men are digging-in the cooling cow-dung at the farther end, and another
+carries away the divided plants tray by tray, and carefully replants
+them. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_220" name="Page_220"></a>[220]</span>still air, with only the very gentlest south-westerly
+breath in it, brings up the mighty boom of the great ship guns from the
+old seaport, thirty miles away, and the pheasants answer to the sound as
+they do to thunder. The early summer air is of a perfect temperature,
+the soft coo of the wood-dove comes down from the near wood, the
+nightingale sings almost overhead, but&mdash;either human happiness may never
+be quite complete, or else one is not philosophic enough to contemn
+life's lesser evils, for&mdash;oh, the midges!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_221" name="Page_221"></a>[221]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h4>COLOURS OF FLOWERS</h4>
+
+
+<p><br />I am always surprised at the vague, not to say reckless, fashion in
+which garden folk set to work to describe the colours of flowers, and at
+the way in which quite wrong colours are attributed to them. It is done
+in perfect good faith, and without the least consciousness of describing
+wrongly. In many cases it appears to be because the names of certain
+substances have been used conventionally or poetically to convey the
+idea of certain colours. And some of these errors are so old that they
+have acquired a kind of respectability, and are in a way accepted
+without challenge. When they are used about familiar flowers it does not
+occur to one to detect them, because one knows the flower and its true
+colour; but when the same old error is used in the description of a new
+flower, it is distinctly misleading. For instance, when we hear of
+golden buttercups, we know that it means bright-yellow buttercups; but
+in the case of a new flower, or one not generally known, surely it is
+better and more accurate to say bright yellow at once. Nothing is more
+frequent in plant catalogues than "bright golden yellow," when
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_222" name="Page_222"></a>[222]</span>bright yellow is meant. Gold is not bright yellow. I find that a
+gold piece laid on a gravel path, or against a sandy bank, nearly
+matches it in colour; and I cannot think of any flower that matches or
+even approaches the true colour of gold, though something near it may be
+seen in the pollen-covered anthers of many flowers. A match for gold may
+more nearly be found among dying beech leaves, and some dark colours of
+straw or dry grass bents, but none of these when they match the gold are
+bright yellow. In literature it is quite another matter; when the poet
+or imaginative writer says, "a field of golden buttercups," or "a golden
+sunset," he is quite right, because he appeals to our artistic
+perception, and in such case only uses the word as an image of something
+that is rich and sumptuous and glowing.</p>
+
+<p>The same irrelevance of comparison seems to run through all the colours.
+Flowers of a full, bright-blue colour are often described as of a
+"brilliant amethystine blue." Why amethystine? The amethyst, as we
+generally see it, is a stone of a washy purple colour, and though there
+are amethysts of a fine purple, they are not so often seen as the paler
+ones, and I have never seen one even faintly approaching a really blue
+colour. What, therefore, is the sense of likening a flower, such as a
+Delphinium, which is really of a splendid pure-blue colour, to the
+duller and totally different colour of a third-rate gem?</p>
+
+<p>Another example of the same slip-slop is the term
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_223" name="Page_223"></a>[223]</span>flame-coloured, and it is often preceded by the word "gorgeous."
+This contradictory mixture of terms is generally used to mean bright
+scarlet. When I look at a flame, whether of fire or candle, I see that
+the colour is a rather pale yellow, with a reddish tinge about its upper
+forks, and side wings often of a bluish white&mdash;no scarlet anywhere. The
+nearest approach to red is in the coals, not in the flame. In the case
+of the candle, the point of the wick is faintly red when compared with
+the flame, but about the flame there is no red whatever. A distant
+bonfire looks red at night, but I take it that the apparent redness is
+from seeing the flames through damp atmosphere, just as the harvest-moon
+looks red when it rises.</p>
+
+<p>And the strange thing is that in all these cases the likeness to the
+unlike, and much less bright, colour is given with an air of conferring
+the highest compliment on the flower in question. It is as if, wishing
+to praise some flower of a beautiful blue, one called it a brilliant
+slate-roof blue. This sounds absurd, because it is unfamiliar, but the
+unsuitability of the comparison is scarcely greater than in the examples
+just quoted.</p>
+
+<p>It seems most reasonable in describing the colour of flowers to look out
+for substances whose normal colour shows but little variation&mdash;such, for
+example, as sulphur. The colour of sulphur is nearly always the same.
+Citron, lemon, and canary are useful colour-names, indicating different
+strengths of pure pale yellow, inclining towards a tinge of the palest
+green. <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_224" name="Page_224"></a>[224]</span>Gentian-blue is a useful word, bringing to mind the
+piercingly powerful hue of the Gentianella. So also is turquoise-blue,
+for the stone has little variety of shade, and the colour is always of
+the same type. Forget-me-not blue is also a good word, meaning the
+colour of the native water Forget-me-not. Sky-blue is a little vague,
+though it has come by the "crystallising" force of usage to stand for a
+blue rather pale than full, and not far from that of the Forget-me-not;
+indeed, I seem to remember written passages in which the colours of
+flower and firmament were used reciprocally, the one in describing the
+other. Cobalt is a word sometimes used, but more often misused, for only
+water-colour painters know just what it represents, and it is of little
+use, as it so rarely occurs among flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Crimson is a word to beware of; it covers such a wide extent of ground,
+and is used so carelessly in plant-catalogues, that one cannot know
+whether it stands for a rich blood colour or for a malignant magenta.
+For the latter class of colour the term amaranth, so generally used in
+French plant-lists, is extremely useful, both as a definition and a
+warning. Salmon is an excellent colour-word, copper is also useful, the
+two covering a limited range of beautiful colouring of the utmost value.
+Blood-red is also accurately descriptive. Terra-cotta is useful but
+indefinite, as it may mean anything between brick-red and buff.
+Red-lead, if it would be accepted as a <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_225" name="Page_225"></a>[225]</span>colour-word, would be
+useful, denoting the shades of colour between the strongest orange and
+the palest scarlet, frequent in the lightest of the Oriental Poppies.
+Amber is a misleading word, for who is to know when it means the
+transparent amber, whose colour approaches that of resin, or the pale,
+almost opaque, dull-yellow kind. And what is meant by coral-red? It is
+the red of the old-fashioned dull-scarlet coral, or of the pink kind
+more recently in favour.</p>
+
+<p>The terms bronze and smoke may well be used in their place, as in
+describing or attempting to describe the wonderful colouring of such
+flowers as Spanish Iris, and the varieties of Iris of the <i>squalens</i>
+section. But often in describing a flower a reference to texture much
+helps and strengthens the colour-word. I have often described the modest
+little <i>Iris tuberosa</i> as a flower made of green satin and black velvet.
+The green portion is only slightly green, but is entirely green satin,
+and the black of the velvet is barely black, but is quite
+black-velvet-like. The texture of the flower of <i>Ornithogalum nutans</i> is
+silver satin, neither very silvery nor very satin-like, and yet so
+nearly suggesting the texture of both that the words may well be used in
+speaking of it. Indeed, texture plays so important a part in the
+appearance of colour-surface, that one can hardly think of colour
+without also thinking of texture. A piece of black satin and a piece of
+black velvet may be woven of the same batch of material, but when the
+satin is finished and the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_226" name="Page_226"></a>[226]</span>velvet cut, the appearance is often
+so dissimilar that they may look quite different in colour. A working
+painter is never happy if you give him an oil-colour pattern to match in
+distemper; he must have it of the same texture, or he will not undertake
+to get it like.</p>
+
+<p>What a wonderful range of colouring there is in black alone to a trained
+colour-eye! There is the dull brown-black of soot, and the velvety
+brown-black of the bean-flower's blotch; to my own eye, I have never
+found anything so entirely black in a natural product as the patch on
+the lower petals of <i>Iris iberica</i>. Is it not Ruskin who says of
+Velasquez, that there is more colour in his black than in many another
+painter's whole palette? The blotch of the bean-flower appears black at
+first, till you look at it close in the sunlight, and then you see its
+rich velvety texture, so nearly like some of the brown-velvet markings
+on butterflies' wings. And the same kind of rich colour and texture
+occurs again on some of the tough flat half-round funguses, marked with
+shaded rings, that grow out of old posts, and that I always enjoy as
+lessons of lovely colour-harmony of grey and brown and black.</p>
+
+<p>Much to be regretted is the disuse of the old word murrey, now only
+employed in heraldry. It stands for a dull red-purple, such as appears
+in the flower of the Virginian Allspice, and in the native
+Hound's-tongue, and often in seedling Auriculas. A fine strong-growing
+border Auricula was given to me by my valued friend the Curator of the
+Trinity College Botanic Garden, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_227" name="Page_227"></a>[227]</span>Dublin, to which he had given
+the excellently descriptive name, "Old Murrey."</p>
+
+<p>Sage-green is a good colour-word, for, winter or summer, the sage-leaves
+change but little. Olive-green is not so clear, though it has come by
+use to stand for a brownish green, like the glass of a wine-bottle held
+up to the light, but perhaps bottle-green is the better word. And it is
+not clear what part or condition of the olive is meant, for the ripe
+fruit is nearly black, and the tree in general, and the leaf in detail,
+are of a cool-grey colour. Perhaps the colour-word is taken from the
+colour of the unripe fruit pickled in brine, as we see them on the
+table. Grass-green any one may understand, but I am always puzzled by
+apple-green. Apples are of so many different greens, to say nothing of
+red and yellow; and as for pea-green, I have no idea what it means.</p>
+
+<p>I notice in plant-lists the most reckless and indiscriminate use of the
+words purple, violet, mauve, lilac, and lavender, and as they are all
+related, I think they should be used with the greater caution. I should
+say that mauve and lilac cover the same ground; the word mauve came into
+use within my recollection. It is French for mallow, and the flower of
+the wild plant may stand as the type of what the word means. Lavender
+stands for a colder or bluer range of pale purples, with an inclination
+to grey; it is a useful word, because the whole colour of the flower
+spike varies so little. Violet stands for the dark garden violet, and I
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_228" name="Page_228"></a>[228]</span>always think of the grand colour of <i>Iris reticulata</i> as an
+example of a rich violet-purple. But purple equally stands for this, and
+for many shades redder.</p>
+
+<p>Snow-white is very vague. There is nearly always so much blue about the
+colour of snow, from its crystalline surface and partial transparency,
+and the texture is so unlike that of any kind of flower, that the
+comparison is scarcely permissible. I take it that the use of
+"snow-white" is, like that of "golden-yellow," more symbolical than
+descriptive, meaning any white that gives an impression of purity.
+Nearly all white flowers are yellowish-white, and the comparatively few
+that are bluish-white, such, for example, as <i>Omphalodes verna</i>, are of
+a texture so different from snow that one cannot compare them at all. I
+should say that most white flowers are near the colour of chalk; for
+although the word chalky-white has been used in rather a contemptuous
+way, the colour is really a very beautiful warm white, but by no means
+an intense white. The flower that always looks to me the whitest is that
+of <i>Iberis sempervirens</i>. The white is dead and hard, like a piece of
+glazed stoneware, quite without play or variation, and hence
+uninteresting.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_229" name="Page_229"></a>[229]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h4>THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN</h4>
+
+
+<p><br />The sweet scents of a garden are by no means the least of its many
+delights. Even January brings <i>Chimonanthus fragrans</i>, one of the
+sweetest and strongest scented of the year's blooms&mdash;little
+half-transparent yellowish bells on an otherwise naked-looking wall
+shrub. They have no stalks, but if they are floated in a shallow dish of
+water, they last well for several days, and give off a powerful
+fragrance in a room.</p>
+
+<p>During some of the warm days that nearly always come towards the end of
+February, if one knows where to look in some sunny, sheltered corner of
+a hazel copse, there will be sure to be some Primroses, and the first
+scent of the year's first Primrose is no small pleasure. The garden
+Primroses soon follow, and, meanwhile, in all open winter weather there
+have been Czar Violets and <i>Iris stylosa</i>, with its delicate scent,
+faintly violet-like, but with a dash of tulip. <i>Iris reticulata</i> is also
+sweet, with a still stronger perfume of the violet character. But of all
+Irises I know, the sweetest to smell is a later blooming one, <i>I.
+graminea</i>. Its small purple flowers are almost hidden among the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_230" name="Page_230"></a>[230]</span>thick mass of grassy foliage which rises high above the bloom;
+but they are worth looking for, for the sake of the sweet and rather
+penetrating scent, which is exactly like that of a perfectly-ripened
+plum.</p>
+
+<p>All the scented flowers of the Primrose tribe are delightful&mdash;Primrose,
+Polyanthus, Auricula, Cowslip. The actual sweetness is most apparent in
+the Cowslip; in the Auricula it has a pungency, and at the same time a
+kind of veiled mystery, that accords with the clouded and
+curiously-blended colourings of many of the flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Sweetbriar is one of the strongest of the year's early scents, and
+closely following is the woodland incense of the Larch, both freely
+given off and far-wafted, as is also that of the hardy Daphnes. The
+first quarter of the year also brings the bloom of most of the deciduous
+Magnolias, all with a fragrance nearly allied to that of the large one
+that blooms late in summer, but not so strong and heavy.</p>
+
+<p>The sweetness of a sun-baked bank of Wallflower belongs to April.
+Daffodils, lovely as they are, must be classed among flowers of rather
+rank smell, and yet it is welcome, for it means spring-time, with its
+own charm and its glad promise of the wealth of summer bloom that is
+soon to come. The scent of the Jonquil, Poeticus, and Polyanthus
+sections are best, Jonquil perhaps best of all, for it is without the
+rather coarse scent of the Trumpets and Nonsuch, and also escapes the
+penetrating lusciousness of <i>poeticus</i> and <i>tazetta</i>, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_231" name="Page_231"></a>[231]</span>which in
+the south of Europe is exaggerated in the case of <i>tazetta</i> into
+something distinctly unpleasant.</p>
+
+<p>What a delicate refinement there is in the scent of the wild
+Wood-Violet; it is never overdone. It seems to me to be quite the best
+of all the violet-scents, just because of its temperate quality. It
+gives exactly enough, and never that perhaps-just-a-trifle-too-much that
+may often be noticed about a bunch of frame-Violets, and that also in
+the south is intensified to a degree that is distinctly undesirable. For
+just as colour may be strengthened to a painful glare, and sound may be
+magnified to a torture, so even a sweet scent may pass its appointed
+bounds and become an overpoweringly evil smell. Even in England several
+of the Lilies, whose smell is delicious in open-air wafts, cannot be
+borne in a room. In the south of Europe a Tuberose cannot be brought
+indoors, and even at home I remember one warm wet August how a plant of
+Balm of Gilead (<i>Cedronella triphylla</i>) had its always powerful but
+usually agreeably aromatic smell so much exaggerated that it smelt
+exactly like coal-gas! A brother in Jamaica writes of the large white
+Jasmine: "It does not do to bring it indoors here; the scent is too
+strong. One day I thought there was a dead rat under the floor (a thing
+which did happen once), and behold, it was a glassful of fresh white
+Jasmine that was the offender!"</p>
+
+<p>While on this less pleasant part of the subject, I cannot help thinking
+of the horrible smell of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_232" name="Page_232"></a>[232]</span>Dragon Arum; and yet how fitting
+an accompaniment it is to the plant, for if ever there was a plant that
+looked wicked and repellent, it is this; and yet, like Medusa, it has
+its own kind of fearful beauty. In this family the smell seems to
+accompany the appearance, and to diminish in unpleasantness as the
+flower increases in amiability; for in our native wild Arum the smell,
+though not exactly nice, is quite innocuous, and in the beautiful white
+Arum or <i>Calla</i> of our greenhouses there is as little scent as a flower
+can well have, especially one of such large dimensions. In Fungi the bad
+smell is nearly always an indication of poisonous nature, so that it
+would seem to be given as a warning. But it has always been a matter of
+wonder to me why the root of the harmless and friendly Laurustinus
+should have been given a particularly odious smell&mdash;a smell I would
+rather not attempt to describe. On moist warmish days in mid-seasons I
+have sometimes had a whiff of the same unpleasantness from the bushes
+themselves; others of the same tribe have it in a much lesser degree.
+There is a curious smell about the yellow roots of Berberis, not exactly
+nasty, and a strong odour, not really offensive, but that I personally
+dislike, about the root of <i>Chrysanthemum maximum</i>. On the other hand, I
+always enjoy digging up, dividing, and replanting the <i>Asarums</i>, both
+the common European and the American kinds; their roots have a pleasant
+and most interesting smell, a good deal like mild pepper and ginger
+mixed, but more strongly <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_233" name="Page_233"></a>[233]</span>aromatic. The same class of smell, but
+much fainter, and always reminding me of very good and delicate pepper,
+I enjoy in the flowers of the perennial Lupines. The only other hardy
+flowers I can think of whose smell is distinctly offensive are <i>Lilium
+pyrenaicum</i>, smelling like a mangy dog, and some of the <i>Schizanthus</i>,
+that are redolent of dirty hen-house.</p>
+
+<p>There is a class of scent that, though it can neither be called sweet
+nor aromatic, is decidedly pleasing and interesting. Such is that of
+Bracken and other Fern-fronds, Ivy-leaves, Box-bushes, Vine-blossom,
+Elder-flowers, and Fig-leaves. There are the sweet scents that are
+wholly delightful&mdash;most of the Roses, Honeysuckle, Primrose, Cowslip,
+Mignonette, Pink, Carnation, Heliotrope, Lily of the Valley, and a host
+of others; then there is a class of scent that is intensely powerful,
+and gives an impression almost of intemperance or voluptuousness, such
+as Magnolia, Tuberose, Gardenia, Stephanotis, and Jasmine; it is strange
+that these all have white flowers of thick leathery texture. In
+strongest contrast to these are the sweet, wholesome, wind-wafted scents
+of clover-field, of bean-field, and of new-mown hay, and the soft
+honey-scent of sun-baked heather, and of a buttercup meadow in April.
+Still more delicious is the wind-swept sweetness of a wood of Larch or
+of Scotch Fir, and the delicate perfume of young-leaved Birch, or the
+heavier scent of the flowering Lime. Out on the moorlands, besides the
+sweet heather-scent, is that of flowering Broom and Gorse <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_234" name="Page_234"></a>[234]</span>and
+of the Bracken, so like the first smell of the sea as you come near it
+after a long absence.</p>
+
+<p>How curiously scents of flowers and leaves fall into classes&mdash;often one
+comes upon related smells running into one another in not necessarily
+related plants. There is a kind of scent that I sometimes meet with,
+about clumps of Brambles, a little like the waft of a Fir wood; it
+occurs again (quite naturally) in the first taste of blackberry jam, and
+then turns up again in Sweet Sultan. It is allied to the smell of the
+dying Strawberry leaves.</p>
+
+<p>The smell of the Primrose occurs again in a much stronger and ranker
+form in the root-stock, and the same thing happens with the Violets and
+Pansies; in Violets the plant-smell is pleasant, though without the high
+perfume of the flower; but the smell of an overgrown bed of Pansy-plants
+is rank to offensiveness.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the most delightful of all flower scents are those whose tender
+and delicate quality makes one wish for just a little more. Such a scent
+is that of Apple-blossom, and of some small Pansies, and of the wild
+Rose and the Honeysuckle. Among Roses alone the variety and degree of
+sweet scent seems almost infinite. To me the sweetest of all is the
+Provence, the old Cabbage Rose of our gardens. When something
+approaching this appears, as it frequently does, among the hybrid
+perpetuals, I always greet it as the real sweet Rose smell. One expects
+every Rose to be <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_235" name="Page_235"></a>[235]</span>fragrant, and it is a disappointment to find
+that such a beautiful flower as Baroness Rothschild is wanting in the
+sweet scent that would be the fitting complement of its incomparable
+form, and to perceive in so handsome a Rose as Malmaison a heavy smell
+of decidedly bad quality. But such cases are not frequent.</p>
+
+<p>There is much variety in the scent of the Tea-Roses, the actual tea
+flavour being strongest in the Dijon class. Some have a powerful scent
+that is very near that of a ripe Nectarine; of this the best example I
+know is the old rose Goubault. The half-double red Gloire de Rosamène
+has a delightful scent of a kind that is rare among Roses. It has a good
+deal of the quality of that mysterious and delicious smell given off by
+the dying strawberry leaves, aromatic, pungent, and delicately refined,
+searching and powerful, and yet subtle and elusive&mdash;the best sweet smell
+of all the year. One cannot have it for the seeking; it comes as it
+will&mdash;a scent that is sad as a forecast of the inevitable certainty of
+the flower-year's waning, and yet sweet with the promise of its timely
+new birth.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes I have met with a scent of somewhat the same mysterious and
+aromatic kind when passing near a bank clothed with the great St. John's
+Wort. As this also occurs in early autumn, I suppose it to be occasioned
+by the decay of some of the leaves. And there is a small yellow-flowered
+Potentilla that has a scent of the same character, but always freely and
+willingly given off&mdash;a humble-looking little plant, well <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_236" name="Page_236"></a>[236]</span>worth
+growing for its sweetness, that much to my regret I have lost.</p>
+
+<p>I observe that when a Rose exists in both single and double form the
+scent is increased in the double beyond the proportion that one would
+expect. <i>Rosa lucida</i> in the ordinary single state has only a very
+slight scent; in the lovely double form it is very sweet, and has
+acquired somewhat of the Moss-rose smell. The wild Burnet-rose (<i>R.
+spinosissima</i>) has very little smell; but the Scotch Briars, its garden
+relatives, have quite a powerful fragrance, a pale flesh-pink kind,
+whose flowers are very round and globe-like, being the sweetest of all.</p>
+
+<p>But of all the sweet scents of bush or flower, the ones that give me the
+greatest pleasure are those of the aromatic class, where they seem to
+have a wholesome resinous or balsamic base, with a delicate perfume
+added. When I pick and crush in my hand a twig of Bay, or brush against
+a bush of Rosemary, or tread upon a tuft of Thyme, or pass through
+incense-laden brakes of Cistus, I feel that here is all that is best and
+purest and most refined, and nearest to poetry, in the range of faculty
+of the sense of smell.</p>
+
+<p>The scents of all these sweet shrubs, many of them at home in dry and
+rocky places in far-away lower latitudes, recall in a way far more
+distinct than can be done by a mere mental effort of recollection,
+rambles of years ago in many a lovely southern land&mdash;in the islands of
+the Greek Archipelago, beautiful in <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_237" name="Page_237"></a>[237]</span>form, and from a distance
+looking bare and arid, and yet with a scattered growth of lowly,
+sweet-smelling bush and herb, so that as you move among them every plant
+seems full of sweet sap or aromatic gum, and as you tread the perfumed
+carpet the whole air is scented; then of dusky groves of tall Cypress
+and Myrtle, forming mysterious shadowy woodland temples that unceasingly
+offer up an incense of their own surpassing fragrance, and of cooler
+hollows in the same lands and in the nearer Orient, where the Oleander
+grows like the willow of the north, and where the Sweet Bay throws up
+great tree-like suckers of surprising strength and vigour. It is only
+when one has seen it grow like this that one can appreciate the full
+force of the old Bible simile. Then to find oneself standing (while
+still on earth) in a grove of giant Myrtles fifteen feet high is like
+having a little chink of the door of heaven opened, as if to show a
+momentary glimpse of what good things may be beyond!</p>
+
+<p>Among the sweet shrubs from the nearer of these southern regions, one of
+the best for English gardens is <i>Cistus laurifolius</i>. Its wholesome,
+aromatic sweetness is freely given off, even in winter. In this, as in
+its near relative, <i>C. ladaniferus</i>, the scent seems to come from the
+gummy surface, and not from the body of the leaf. <i>Caryopteris
+Mastacanthus</i>, the Mastic plant, from China, one of the few shrubs that
+flower in autumn, has strongly-scented woolly leaves, something like
+turpentine, but more refined. <i>Ledum palustre</i> has a delightful
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_238" name="Page_238"></a>[238]</span>scent when its leaves are bruised. The wild Bog-myrtle, so
+common in Scotland, has almost the sweetness of the true Myrtle, as has
+also the broad-leaved North American kind, and the Candleberry Gale
+(<i>Comptonia asplenifolia</i>) from the same country. The myrtle-leaved
+Rhododendron is a dwarf shrub of neat habit, whose bruised leaves have
+also a myrtle-like smell, though it is less strong than in the Gales. I
+wonder why the leaves of nearly all the hardy aromatic shrubs are of a
+hard, dry texture; the exceptions are so few that it seems to be a law.</p>
+
+<p>If my copse were some acres larger I should like nothing better than to
+make a good-sized clearing, laying out to the sun, and to plant it with
+these aromatic bushes and herbs. The main planting should be of Cistus
+and Rosemary and Lavender, and for the shadier edges the Myrtle-leaved
+Rhododendron, and <i>Ledum palustre</i>, and the three Bog-myrtles. Then
+again in the sun would be Hyssop and Catmint, and Lavender-cotton and
+Southernwood, with others of the scented Artemisias, and Sage and
+Marjoram. All the ground would be carpeted with Thyme and Basil and
+others of the dwarfer sweet-herbs. There would be no regular paths, but
+it would be so planted that in most parts one would have to brush up
+against the sweet bushes, and sometimes push through them, as one does
+on the thinner-clothed of the mountain slopes of southern Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Among the many wonders of the vegetable world <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_239" name="Page_239"></a>[239]</span>are the flowers
+that hang their heads and seem to sleep in the daytime, and that awaken
+as the sun goes down, and live their waking life at night. And those
+that are most familiar in our gardens have powerful perfumes, except the
+Evening Primrose (<i>&OElig;nothera</i>), which has only a milder sweetness. It
+is vain to try and smell the night-given scent in the daytime; it is
+either withheld altogether, or some other smell, quite different, and
+not always pleasant, is there instead. I have tried hard in daytime to
+get a whiff of the night sweetness of <i>Nicotiana affinis</i>, but can only
+get hold of something that smells like a horse! Some of the best of the
+night-scents are those given by the Stocks and Rockets. They are sweet
+in the hand in the daytime, but the best of the sweet scent seems to be
+like a thin film on the surface. It does not do to smell them too
+vigorously, for, especially in Stocks and Wallflowers, there is a
+strong, rank, cabbage-like under-smell. But in the sweetness given off
+so freely in the summer evening there is none of this; then they only
+give their very best.</p>
+
+<p>But of all the family, the finest fragrance comes from the small annual
+Night-scented Stock (<i>Matthiola bicornis</i>), a plant that in daytime is
+almost ugly; for the leaves are of a dull-grey colour, and the flowers
+are small and also dull-coloured, and they are closed and droop and look
+unhappy. But when the sun has set the modest little plant seems to come
+to life; the grey foliage is almost beautiful in its harmonious relation
+to <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_240" name="Page_240"></a>[240]</span>the half-light; the flowers stand up and expand, and in the
+early twilight show tender colouring of faint pink and lilac, and pour
+out upon the still night-air a lavish gift of sweetest fragrance; and
+the modest little plant that in strong sunlight looked unworthy of a
+place in the garden, now rises to its appointed rank and reigns supreme
+as its prime delight.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_241" name="Page_241"></a>[241]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h4>THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS</h4>
+
+
+<p><br />Several times during these notes I have spoken in a disparaging manner
+of the show-table; and I have not done so lightly, but with all the care
+and thought and power of observation that my limited capacity is worth;
+and, broadly, I have come to this: that shows, such as those at the
+fortnightly meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society, and their more
+important one in the early summer, whose object is to bring together
+beautiful flowers of all kinds, to a place where they may be seen, are
+of the utmost value; and that any shows anywhere for a like purpose, and
+especially where there are no money prizes, are also sure to be helpful.
+And the test question I put to myself at any show is this, Does this
+really help the best interests of horticulture? And as far as I can see
+that it does this, I think the show right and helpful; and whenever it
+does not, I think it harmful and misleading.</p>
+
+<p>The love of gardening has so greatly grown and spread within the last
+few years, that the need of really good and beautiful garden flowers is
+already far in advance of the demand for the so-called "florists"
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_242" name="Page_242"></a>[242]</span>flowers, by which I mean those that find favour in the exclusive
+shows of Societies for the growing and exhibition of such flowers as
+Tulips, Carnations, Dahlias, and Chrysanthemums. In support of this I
+should like to know what proportion of demand there is, in Dahlias, for
+instance, between the show kinds, whose aim and object is the
+show-table, and the decorative kinds, that are indisputably better for
+garden use. Looking at the catalogue of a leading Dahlia nursery, I find
+that the decorative kinds fill ten pages, while the show kinds,
+including Pompones, fill only three. Is not this some indication of what
+is wanted in gardens?</p>
+
+<p>I am of opinion that the show-table is unworthily used when its object
+is to be an end in itself, and that it should be only a means to a
+better end, and that when it exhibits what has become merely a "fancy,"
+it loses sight of its honourable position as a trustworthy exponent of
+horticulture, and has degenerated to a baser use. When, as in
+Chrysanthemum shows, the flowers on the board are of <i>no use anywhere
+but on that board</i>, and for the purpose of gaining a money prize, I hold
+that the show-table has a debased aim, and a debasing influence. Beauty,
+in all the best sense, is put aside in favour of set rules and
+measurements, and the production of a thing that is of no use or value;
+and individuals of a race of plants capable of producing the highest and
+most delightful forms of beauty, and of brightening our homes, and even
+gardens, during <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_243" name="Page_243"></a>[243]</span>the dim days of early winter, are teased and
+tortured and fatted and bloated into ugly and useless monstrosities for
+no purpose but to gain money. And when private gardeners go to these
+shows and see how the prizes are awarded, and how all the glory is
+accorded to the first-prize bloated monster, can we wonder that the
+effect on their minds is confusing, if not absolutely harmful?</p>
+
+<p>Shows of Carnations and Pansies, where the older rules prevail, are
+equally misleading, where the single flowers are arrayed in a flat
+circle of paper. As with the Chrysanthemum, every sort of trickery is
+allowed in arranging the petals of the Carnation blooms: petals are
+pulled out or stuck in, and they are twisted about, and groomed and
+combed, and manipulated with special tools&mdash;"dressed," as the show-word
+has it&mdash;dressed so elaborately that the dressing only stops short of
+applying actual paint and perfumery. Already in the case of Carnations a
+better influence is being felt, and at the London shows there are now
+classes for border Carnations set up in long-stalked bunches just as
+they grow. It is only like this that their value as outdoor plants can
+be tested; for many of the show sorts have miserably weak stalks, and a
+very poor, lanky habit of growth.</p>
+
+<p>Then the poor Pansies have single blooms laid flat on white papers, and
+are only approved if they will lie quite flat and show an outline of a
+perfect circle. All that is most beautiful in a Pansy, the wing-like
+curves, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_244" name="Page_244"></a>[244]</span>the waved or slightly fluted radiations, the scarcely
+perceptible undulation of surface that displays to perfection the
+admirable delicacy of velvety texture; all the little tender tricks and
+ways that make the Pansy one of the best-loved of garden flowers; all
+this is overlooked, and not only passively overlooked, but overtly
+contemned. The show-pansy judge appears to have no eye, or brain, or
+heart, but to have in their place a pair of compasses with which to
+describe a circle! All idea of garden delight seems to be excluded, as
+this kind of judging appeals to no recognition of beauty for beauty's
+sake, but to hard systems of measurement and rigid arrangement and
+computation that one would think more applicable to astronomy or
+geometry than to any matter relating to horticulture.</p>
+
+<p>I do most strongly urge that beauty of the highest class should be the
+aim, and not anything of the nature of fashion or "fancy," and that
+every effort should be made towards the raising rather than the lowering
+of the standard of taste.</p>
+
+<p>The Societies which exist throughout the country are well organised;
+many have existed for a great number of years; they are the local
+sources of horticultural education, to which large circles of people
+naturally look for guidance; and though they produce&mdash;and especially the
+Rose shows&mdash;quantities of beautiful things, it cannot but be perceived
+by all who have had the benefit of some refinement of education, that
+in <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_245" name="Page_245"></a>[245]</span>very many cases they either deliberately teach, or at any
+rate allow to be seen with their sanction, what cannot fail to be
+debasing to public taste.</p>
+
+<p>I will just take two examples to show how obvious methods of leading
+taste are not only overlooked, but even perverted; for it is not only in
+the individual blooms that much of the show-teaching is unworthy, but
+also in the training of the plants; so that a plant that by nature has
+some beauty of form, is not encouraged or even allowed to develop that
+beauty, but is trained into some shape that is not only foreign to its
+own nature, but is absolutely ugly and ungraceful, and entirely stupid.
+The natural habit of the Chrysanthemum is to grow in the form of several
+upright stems. They spring up sheaf-wise, straight upright for a time,
+and only bending a little outwards above, to give room for the branching
+heads of bloom. The stems are rather stiff, because they are half woody
+at the base. In the case of pot-plants it would seem right only so far
+to stake or train them as to give the necessary support by a few sticks
+set a little outwards at the top, so that each stem may lean a little
+over, after the manner of a Bamboo, when their clustered heads of flower
+would be given enough room, and be seen to the greatest advantage.</p>
+
+<p>But at shows, the triumph of the training art seems to be to drag the
+poor thing round and round over an internal scaffolding of sticks, with
+an infinite number of ties and cross-braces, so that it makes a sort of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_246" name="Page_246"></a>[246]</span>shapeless ball, and to arrange the flowers so that they are
+equally spotted all over it, by tying back some almost to
+snapping-point, and by dragging forward others to the verge of
+dislocation. I have never seen anything so ugly in the way of potted
+plants as a certain kind of Chrysanthemum that has incurved flowers of a
+heavy sort of dull leaden-looking red-purple colour trained in this
+manner. Such a sight gives me a feeling of shame, not unmixed with
+wrathful indignation. I ask myself, What is it for? and I get no answer.
+I ask a practical gardener what it is for, and he says, "Oh, it is one
+of the ways they are trained for shows." I ask him, Does he think it
+pretty, or is it any use? and he says, "Well, they think it makes a nice
+variety;" and when I press him further, and say I consider it a very
+nasty variety, and does he think nasty varieties are better than none,
+the question is beyond him, and he smiles vaguely and edges away,
+evidently thinking my conversation perplexing, and my company
+undesirable. I look again at the unhappy plant, and see its poor leaves
+fat with an unwholesome obesity, and seeming to say, We were really a
+good bit mildewed, but have been doctored up for the show by being
+crammed and stuffed with artificial aliment!</p>
+
+<p>My second example is that of <i>Azalea indica</i>. What is prettier in a room
+than one of these in its little tree form, a true tree, with tiny trunk
+and wide-spreading branches, and its absurdly large and lovely flowers?
+Surely it is the most perfect room ornament that we <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_247" name="Page_247"></a>[247]</span>can have in
+tree shape in a moderate-sized pot; and where else can one see a tree
+loaded with lovely bloom whose individual flowers have a diameter equal
+to five times that of the trunk?</p>
+
+<p>But the show decrees that all this is wrong, and that the tiny, brittle
+branches must be trained stiffly round till the shape of the plant shows
+as a sort of cylinder. Again I ask myself, What is this for? What does
+it teach? Can it be really to teach with deliberate intention that
+instead of displaying its natural and graceful tree form it should aim
+at a more desirable kind of beauty, such as that of the chimney-pot or
+drain-pipe, and that this is so important that it is right and laudable
+to devote to it much time and delicate workmanship?</p>
+
+<p>I cannot but think, as well as hope, that the strong influences for good
+that are now being brought to bear on all departments of gardening may
+reach this class of show, for there are already more hopeful signs in
+the admission of classes for groups arranged for decoration.</p>
+
+<p>The prize-show system no doubt creates its own evils, because the
+judges, and those who frame the schedules, have been in most cases men
+who have a knowledge of flowers, but who are not people of cultivated
+taste, and in deciding what points are to constitute the merits of a
+flower they have to take such qualities as are within the clearest
+understanding of people of average intelligence and average
+education&mdash;such, for instance, as size that can be measured,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_248" name="Page_248"></a>[248]</span>symmetry that can be easily estimated, thickness of petal that
+can be felt, and such qualities of colour as appeal most strongly to the
+uneducated eye; so that a flower may possess features or qualities that
+endow it with the highest beauty, but that exclude it, because the hard
+and narrow limits of the show-laws provide no means of dealing with it.
+It is, therefore, thrown out, not because they have any fault to find
+with it, but because it does not concern them; and the ordinary
+gardener, to whose practice it might be of the highest value, accepting
+the verdict of the show-judge as an infallible guide, also treats it
+with contempt and neglect.</p>
+
+<p>Now, all this would not so much matter if it did not delude those whose
+taste is not sufficiently educated to enable them to form an opinion of
+their own in accordance with the best and truest standards of beauty;
+for I venture to repeat that what we have to look for for the benefit of
+our gardens, and for our own bettering and increase of happiness in
+those gardens, are things that are beautiful, rather than things that
+are round, or straight, or thick, still less than for those that are
+new, or curious, or astonishing. For all these false gods are among us,
+and many are they who are willing to worship.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_249" name="Page_249"></a>[249]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h4>NOVELTY AND VARIETY</h4>
+
+
+<p><br />When I look back over thirty years of gardening, I see what an
+extraordinary progress there has been, not only in the introduction of
+good plants new to general cultivation, but also in the home production
+of improved kinds of old favourites. In annual plants alone there has
+been a remarkable advance. And here again, though many really beautiful
+things are being brought forward, there seems always to be an undue
+value assigned to a fresh development, on the score of its novelty.</p>
+
+<p>Now it seems to me, that among the thousands of beautiful things already
+at hand for garden use, there is no merit whatever in novelty or variety
+unless the thing new or different is distinctly more beautiful, or in
+some such way better than an older thing of the same class.</p>
+
+<p>And there seems to be a general wish among seed growers just now to
+dwarf all annual plants. Now, when a plant is naturally of a diffuse
+habit, the fixing of a dwarfer variety may be a distinct gain to
+horticulture&mdash;it may just make a good garden plant out of <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_250" name="Page_250"></a>[250]</span>one
+that was formerly of indifferent quality; but there seems to me to be a
+kind of stupidity in inferring from this that all annuals are the better
+for dwarfing. I take it that the bedding system has had a good deal to
+do with it. It no doubt enables ignorant gardeners to use a larger
+variety of plants as senseless colour-masses, but it is obvious that
+many, if not most, of the plants are individually made much uglier by
+the process. Take, for example, one of the dwarfest Ageratums: what a
+silly little dumpy, formless, pincushion of a thing it is! And then the
+dwarfest of the China Asters. Here is a plant (whose chief weakness
+already lies in a certain over-stiffness) made stiffer and more
+shapeless still by dwarfing and by cramming with too many petals. The
+Comet Asters of later years are a much-improved type of flower, with a
+looser shape and a certain degree of approach to grace and beauty. When
+this kind came out it was a noteworthy novelty, not because it was a
+novelty, but because it was a better and more beautiful thing. Also
+among the same Asters the introduction of a better class of red
+colouring, first of the blood-red and then of the so-called scarlet
+shades, was a good variety, because it was the distinct bettering of the
+colour of a popular race of garden-flowers, whose red and pink
+colourings had hitherto been of a bad and rank quality.</p>
+
+<p>It is quite true that here and there the dwarf kind is a distinctly
+useful thing, as in the dwarf Nasturtiums. In this grand plant one is
+glad to have <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_251" name="Page_251"></a>[251]</span>dwarf ones as well as the old trailing kinds. I
+even confess to a certain liking for the podgy little dwarf Snapdragons;
+they are ungraceful little dumpy things, but they happen to have come in
+some tender colourings of pale yellow and pale pink, that give them a
+kind of absurd prettiness, and a certain garden-value. I also look at
+them as a little floral joke that is harmless and not displeasing, but
+they cannot for a moment compare in beauty with the free-growing
+Snapdragon of the older type. This I always think one of the best and
+most interesting and admirable of garden-plants. Its beauty is lost if
+it is crowded up among other things in a border; it should be grown in a
+dry wall or steep rocky bank, where its handsome bushy growth and
+finely-poised spikes of bloom can be well seen.</p>
+
+<div class="floatleft" style="width: 262px">
+<img src="images/251left_a.jpg" width="262" height="350" alt="Tall Snapdragons Growing in a Dry Wall." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Tall Snapdragons Growing in a Dry Wall.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="floatright" style="width: 259px">
+<img src="images/251right_a.jpg" width="259" height="350" alt="Mulleins Growing in the Face of Dry Wall. (See 'Old Wall,' page 116.)" title=""/>
+<span class="caption">Mulleins Growing in the Face of Dry Wall.<br /> (See 'Old
+Wall,' page <a href="#Page_118">116</a>.)</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="nofloat">One of the annuals that I think is entirely spoilt by dwarfing is
+Love-in-a-Mist, a plant I hold in high admiration. Many years ago I came
+upon some of it in a small garden, of a type that I thought extremely
+desirable, with a double flower of just the right degree of fulness, and
+of an unusually fine colour. I was fortunate enough to get some seed,
+and have never grown any other, nor have I ever seen elsewhere any that
+I think can compare with it.</p>
+
+<p>The Zinnia is another fine annual that has been much spoilt by its
+would-be improvers. When a Zinnia has a hard, stiff, tall flower, with a
+great many rows of petals piled up one on top of another, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_252" name="Page_252"></a>[252]</span>when its habit is dwarfed to a mean degree of squatness, it
+looks to me both ugly and absurd, whereas a reasonably double one, well
+branched, and two feet high, is a handsome plant.</p>
+
+<p>I also think that Stocks and Wallflowers are much handsomer when rather
+tall and branching. Dwarf Stocks, moreover, are invariably spattered
+with soil in heavy autumn rain.</p>
+
+<p>An example of the improver not knowing where to stop in the matter of
+colouring, always strikes me in the Gaillardias, and more especially in
+the perennial kind, that is increased by division as well as by seed.
+The flower is naturally of a strong orange-yellow colour, with a narrow
+ring of red round the centre. The improver has sought to increase the
+width of the red ring. Up to a certain point it makes a livelier and
+brighter-looking flower; but he has gone too far, and extended the red
+till it has become a red flower with a narrow yellow edge. The red also
+is of a rather dull and heavy nature, so that instead of a handsome
+yellow flower with a broad central ring, here is an ugly red one with a
+yellow border. There is no positive harm done, as the plant has been
+propagated at every stage of development, and one may choose what one
+will; but to see them together is an instructive lesson.</p>
+
+<p>No annual plant has of late years been so much improved as the Sweet
+Pea, and one reason why its charming beauty and scent are so enjoyable
+is, that they grow tall, and can be seen on a level with the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_253" name="Page_253"></a>[253]</span>eye. There can be no excuse whatever for dwarfing this, as has
+lately been done. There are already plenty of good flowering plants
+under a foot high, and the little dwarf white monstrosity, now being
+followed by coloured ones of the same habit, seems to me worthy of
+nothing but condemnation. It would be as right and sensible to dwarf a
+Hollyhock into a podgy mass a foot high, or a Pentstemon, or a Foxglove.
+Happily these have as yet escaped dwarfing, though I regret to see that
+a deformity that not unfrequently appears among garden Foxgloves,
+looking like a bell-shaped flower topping a stunted spike, appears to
+have been "fixed," and is being offered as a "novelty." Here is one of
+the clearest examples of a new development which is a distinct
+debasement of a naturally beautiful form, but which is nevertheless
+being pushed forward in trade: it has no merit whatever in itself, and
+is only likely to sell because it is new and curious.</p>
+
+<p>And all this parade of distortion and deformity comes about from the
+grower losing sight of beauty as the first consideration, or from his
+not having the knowledge that would enable him to determine what are the
+points of character in various plants most deserving of development, and
+in not knowing when or where to stop. Abnormal size, whether greatly
+above or much below the average, appeals to the vulgar and uneducated
+eye, and will always command its attention and wonderment. But then the
+production <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_254" name="Page_254"></a>[254]</span>of the immense size that provokes astonishment, and
+the misapplied ingenuity that produces unusual dwarfing, are neither of
+them very high aims.</p>
+
+<p>And much as I feel grateful to those who improve garden flowers, I
+venture to repeat my strong conviction that their efforts in selection
+and other methods should be so directed as to keep in view the
+attainment of beauty in the first place, and as a point of honour; not
+to mere increase of size of bloom or compactness of habit&mdash;many plants
+have been spoilt by excess of both; not for variety or novelty as ends
+in themselves, but only to welcome them, and offer them, if they are
+distinctly of garden value in the best sense. For if plants are grown or
+advertised or otherwise pushed on any other account than that of their
+possessing some worthy form of beauty, they become of the same nature as
+any other article in trade that is got up for sale for the sole benefit
+of the seller, that is unduly lauded by advertisement, and that makes
+its first appeal to the vulgar eye by an exaggerated and showy pictorial
+representation; that will serve no useful purpose, and for which there
+is no true or healthy demand.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt much of it comes about from the unwholesome pressure of trade
+competition, which in a way obliges all to follow where some lead. I
+trust that my many good friends in the trade will understand that my
+remarks are not made in any personal sense whatever. I know that some of
+them feel much as I do on some of these points, but that in many
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_255" name="Page_255"></a>[255]</span>ways they are helpless, being all bound in a kind of bondage to
+the general system. And there is one great evil that calls loudly for
+redress, but that will endure until some of the mightiest of them have
+the energy and courage to band themselves together and to declare that
+it shall no longer exist among them.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_256" name="Page_256"></a>[256]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h4>WEEDS AND PESTS</h4>
+
+
+<p><br />Weeding is a delightful occupation, especially after summer rain, when
+the roots come up clear and clean. One gets to know how many and various
+are the ways of weeds&mdash;as many almost as the moods of human creatures.
+How easy and pleasant to pull up are the soft annuals like Chickweed and
+Groundsel, and how one looks with respect at deep-rooted things like
+Docks, that make one go and fetch a spade. Comfrey is another thing with
+a terrible root, and every bit must be got out, as it will grow again
+from the smallest scrap. And hard to get up are the two Bryonies, the
+green and the black, with such deep-reaching roots, that, if not weeded
+up within their first year, will have to be seriously dug out later. The
+white Convolvulus, one of the loveliest of native plants, has a most
+persistently running root, of which every joint will quickly form a new
+plant. Some of the worst weeds to get out are Goutweed and Coltsfoot.
+Though I live on a light soil, comparatively easy to clean, I have done
+some gardening in clay, and well know what <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_257" name="Page_257"></a>[257]</span>a despairing job it
+is to get the bits of either of these roots out of the stiff clods.</p>
+
+<p>The most persistent weed in my soil is the small running Sheep's Sorrel.
+First it makes a patch, and then sends out thready running roots all
+round, a foot or more long; these, if not checked, establish new bases
+of operation, and so it goes on, always spreading farther and farther.
+When this happens in soft ground that can be hoed and weeded it matters
+less, but in the lawn it is a more serious matter. Its presence always
+denotes a poor, sandy soil of rather a sour quality.</p>
+
+<p>Goutweed is a pest in nearly all gardens, and very difficult to get out.
+When it runs into the root of some patch of hardy plant, if the plant
+can be spared, I find it best to send it at once to the burn-heap; or if
+it is too precious, there is nothing for it but to cut it all up and
+wash it out, to be sure that not the smallest particle of the enemy
+remains. Some weeds are deceiving&mdash;Sow-thistle, for instance, which has
+the look of promising firm hand-hold and easy extraction, but has a
+disappointing way of almost always breaking short off at the collar. But
+of all the garden weeds that are native plants I know none so persistent
+or so insidious as the Rampion Bell-flower (<i>Campanula Rapunculus</i>); it
+grows from the smallest thread of root, and it is almost impossible to
+see every little bit; for though the main roots are thick, and white,
+and fleshy, the fine side roots that run far abroad are very small,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_258" name="Page_258"></a>[258]</span>and of a reddish colour, and easily hidden in the brown earth.</p>
+
+<p>But some of the worst garden-weeds are exotics run wild. The common
+Grape Hyacinth sometimes overruns a garden and cannot be got rid of.
+<i>Sambucus ebulis</i> is a plant to beware of, its long thong-like roots
+spreading far and wide, and coming up again far away from the parent
+stock. For this reason it is valuable for planting in such places as
+newly-made pond-heads, helping to tie the bank together. <i>Polygonum
+Sieboldi</i> must also be planted with caution. The winter Heliotrope
+(<i>Petasites fragrans</i>) is almost impossible to get out when once it has
+taken hold, growing in the same way as its near relative the native
+Coltsfoot.</p>
+
+<p>But by far the most difficult plant to abolish or even keep in check
+that I know is <i>Ornithogalum nutans</i>. Beautiful as it is, and valuable
+as a cut flower, I will not have it in the garden. I think I may venture
+to say that in this soil, when once established, it cannot be
+eradicated. Each mature bulb makes a host of offsets, and the seed
+quickly ripens. When it is once in a garden it will suddenly appear in
+all sorts of different places. It is no use trying to dig it out. I have
+dug out the whole space of soil containing the patch, a barrow-load at a
+time, and sent it to the middle of the burn-heap, and put in fresh soil,
+and there it is again next year, nearly as thick as ever. I have dug up
+individual small patches with the greatest care, and got out every bulb
+and offset, and every bit of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_259" name="Page_259"></a>[259]</span>whitish leaf stem, for I have
+such faith in its power of reproduction that I think every atom of this
+is capable of making a plant, only to find next year a thriving young
+tuft of the "grass" in the same place. And yet the bulb and underground
+stem are white, and the earth is brown, and I passed it all several
+times through my fingers, but all in vain. I confess that it beats me
+entirely.</p>
+
+<p><i>Coronilla varia</i> is a little plant that appears in catalogues among
+desirable Alpines, but is a very "rooty" and troublesome thing, and
+scarcely good enough for garden use, though pretty in a grassy bank
+where its rambling ways would not be objectionable. I once brought home
+from Brittany some roots of <i>Linaria repens</i>, that looked charming by a
+roadside, and planted them in a bit of Alpine garden, a planting that I
+never afterwards ceased to regret.</p>
+
+<p>I learnt from an old farmer a good way of getting rid of a bed of
+nettles&mdash;to thrash them down with a stick every time they grow up. If
+this is done about three times during the year, the root becomes so much
+weakened that it is easily forked out, or if the treatment is gone on
+with, the second year the nettles die. Thrashing with a stick is better
+than cutting, as it makes the plant bleed more; any mutilation of bruise
+or ragged tearing of fibre is more harmful to plant or tree than clean
+cutting.</p>
+
+<p>Of bird, beast, and insect pests we have plenty. First, and worst, are
+rabbits. They will gnaw and <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_260" name="Page_260"></a>[260]</span>nibble anything and everything that
+is newly planted, even native things like Juniper, Scotch Fir, and
+Gorse. The necessity of wiring everything newly planted adds greatly to
+the labour and expense of the garden, and the unsightly grey
+wire-netting is an unpleasant eyesore. When plants or bushes are well
+established the rabbits leave them alone, though some families of plants
+are always irresistible&mdash;Pinks and Carnations, for instance, and nearly
+all Cruciferæ, such as Wallflowers, Stocks, and Iberis. The only plants
+I know that they do not touch are Rhododendrons and Azaleas; they leave
+them for the hare, that is sure to get in every now and then, and who
+stands up on his long hind-legs, and will eat Rose-bushes quite high up.</p>
+
+<p>Plants eaten by a hare look as if they had been cut with a sharp knife;
+there is no appearance of gnawing or nibbling, no ragged edges of wood
+or frayed bark, but just a straight clean cut.</p>
+
+<p>Field mice are very troublesome. Some years they will nibble off the
+flower-buds of the Lent Hellebores; when they do this they have a
+curious way of collecting them and laying them in heaps. I have no idea
+why they do this, as they neither carry them away nor eat them
+afterwards; there the heaps of buds lie till they rot or dry up. They
+once stole all my Auricula seed in the same way. I had marked some good
+plants for seed, cutting off all the other flowers as soon as they went
+out of bloom. The seed was ripening, and I watched it daily, awaiting
+the <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_261" name="Page_261"></a>[261]</span>moment for harvesting. But a few days before it was ready I
+went round and found the seed was all gone; it had been cut off at the
+top of the stalk, so that the umbel-shaped heads had been taken away
+whole. I looked about, and luckily found three slightly hollow places
+under the bank at the back of the border where the seed-heads had been
+piled in heaps. In this case it looked as if it had been stored for
+food; luckily it was near enough to ripeness for me to save my crop.</p>
+
+<p>The mice are also troublesome with newly-sown Peas, eating some
+underground, while sparrows nibble off others when just sprouted; and
+when outdoor Grapes are ripening mice run up the walls and eat them.
+Even when the Grapes are tied in oiled canvas bags they will eat through
+the bags to get at them, though I have never known them to gnaw through
+the newspaper bags that I now use in preference, and that ripen the
+Grapes as well. I am not sure whether it is mice or birds that pick off
+the flowers of the big bunch Primroses, but am inclined to think it is
+mice, because the stalks are cut low down.</p>
+
+<p>Pheasants are very bad gardeners; what they seem to enjoy most are
+Crocuses&mdash;in fact, it is no use planting them. I had once a nice
+collection of Crocus species. They were in separate patches, all along
+the edge of one border, in a sheltered part of the garden, where
+pheasants did not often come. One day when I came to see my Crocuses, I
+found where each patch had been a basin-shaped excavation and a few
+fragments of stalk <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_262" name="Page_262"></a>[262]</span>or some part of the plant. They had begun at
+one end and worked steadily along, clearing them right out. They also
+destroyed a long bed of <i>Anemone fulgens</i>. First they took the flowers,
+and then the leaves, and lastly pecked up and ate the roots.</p>
+
+<p>But we have one grand consolation in having no slugs, at least hardly
+any that are truly indigenous; they do not like our dry, sandy heaths.
+Friends are very generous in sending them with plants, so that we have a
+moderate number that hang about frames and pot plants, though nothing
+much to boast of; but they never trouble seedlings in the open ground,
+and for this I can never be too thankful.</p>
+
+<p>Alas that the beautiful bullfinch should be so dire an enemy to
+fruit-trees, and also the pretty little tits! but so it is; and it is a
+sad sight to see a well-grown fruit-tree with all its fruit-buds pecked
+out and lying under it on the ground in a thin green carpet. We had some
+fine young cherry-trees in a small orchard that we cut down in despair
+after they had been growing twelve years. They were too large to net,
+and their space could not be spared just for the mischievous fun of the
+birds.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_263" name="Page_263"></a>[263]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h4>THE BEDDING FASHION AND ITS INFLUENCE</h4>
+
+
+<p><br />It is curious to look back at the old days of bedding-out, when that and
+that only meant gardening to most people, and to remember how the
+fashion, beginning in the larger gardens, made its way like a great
+inundating wave, submerging the lesser ones, and almost drowning out the
+beauties of the many little flowery cottage plots of our English
+waysides. And one wonders how it all came about, and why the bedding
+system, admirable for its own purpose, should have thus outstepped its
+bounds, and have been allowed to run riot among gardens great and small
+throughout the land. But so it was, and for many years the fashion, for
+it was scarcely anything better, reigned supreme.</p>
+
+<p>It was well for all real lovers of flowers when some quarter of a
+century ago a strong champion of the good old flowers arose, and fought
+strenuously to stay the devastating tide, and to restore the healthy
+liking for the good old garden flowers. Many soon followed, and now one
+may say that all England has flocked to the standard. Bedding as an
+all-prevailing fashion is now dead; the old garden-flowers are again
+honoured <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_264" name="Page_264"></a>[264]</span>and loved, and every encouragement is freely offered
+to those who will improve old kinds and bring forward others.</p>
+
+<p>And now that bedding as a fashion no longer exists, one can look at it
+more quietly and fairly, and see what its uses really are, for in its
+own place and way it is undoubtedly useful and desirable. Many great
+country-houses are only inhabited in winter, then perhaps for a week or
+two at Easter, and in the late summer. There is probably a house-party
+at Easter, and a succession of visitors in the late summer. A brilliant
+garden, visible from the house, dressed for spring and dressed for early
+autumn, is exactly what is wanted&mdash;not necessarily from any special love
+of flowers, but as a kind of bright and well-kept furnishing of the
+immediate environment of the house. The gardener delights in it; it is
+all routine work; so many hundreds or thousands of scarlet Geranium, of
+yellow Calceolaria, of blue Lobelia, of golden Feverfew, or of other
+coloured material. It wants no imagination; the comprehension of it is
+within the range of the most limited understanding; indeed its
+prevalence for some twenty years or more must have had a deteriorating
+influence on the whole class of private gardeners, presenting to them an
+ideal so easy of attainment and so cheap of mental effort.</p>
+
+<p>But bedding, though it is gardening of the least poetical or imaginative
+kind, can be done badly or beautifully. In the <i>parterre</i> of the formal
+garden it <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_265" name="Page_265"></a>[265]</span>is absolutely in place, and brilliantly-beautiful
+pictures can be made by a wise choice of colouring. I once saw, and can
+never forget, a bedded garden that was a perfectly satisfying example of
+colour-harmony; but then it was planned by the master, a man of the most
+refined taste, and not by the gardener. It was a <i>parterre</i> that formed
+part of the garden in one of the fine old places in the Midland
+counties. I have no distinct recollection of the design, except that
+there was some principle of fan-shaped radiation, of which each extreme
+angle formed one centre. The whole garden was treated in one harmonious
+colouring of full yellow, orange, and orange-brown; half-hardy annuals,
+such as French and African Marigolds, Zinnias, and Nasturtiums, being
+freely used. It was the most noble treatment of one limited range of
+colouring I have ever seen in a garden; brilliant without being garish,
+and sumptuously gorgeous without the reproach of gaudiness&mdash;a precious
+lesson in temperance and restraint in the use of the one colour, and an
+admirable exposition of its powerful effect in the hands of a true
+artist.</p>
+
+<p>I think that in many smaller gardens a certain amount of bedding may be
+actually desirable; for where the owner of a garden has a special liking
+for certain classes or mixtures of plants, or wishes to grow them
+thoroughly well and enjoy them individually to the full, he will
+naturally grow them in separate beds, or may intentionally combine the
+beds, if he will, into <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_266" name="Page_266"></a>[266]</span>some form of good garden effect. But the
+great fault of the bedding system when at its height was, that it swept
+over the country as a tyrannical fashion, that demanded, and for the
+time being succeeded in effecting, the exclusion of better and more
+thoughtful kinds of gardening; for I believe I am right in saying that
+it spread like an epidemic disease, and raged far and wide for nearly a
+quarter of a century.</p>
+
+<p>Its worst form of all was the "ribbon border," generally a line of
+scarlet Geranium at the back, then a line of Calceolaria, then a line of
+blue Lobelia, and lastly, a line of the inevitable Golden Feather
+Feverfew, or what our gardener used to call Featherfew. Could anything
+be more tedious or more stupid? And the ribbon border was at its worst
+when its lines were not straight, but waved about in weak and silly
+sinuations.</p>
+
+<p>And when bedding as a fashion was dead, when this false god had been
+toppled off his pedestal, and his worshippers had been converted to
+better beliefs, in turning and rending him they often went too far, and
+did injustice to the innocent by professing a dislike to many a good
+plant, and renouncing its use. It was not the fault of the Geranium or
+of the Calceolaria that they had been grievously misused and made to
+usurp too large a share of our garden spaces. Not once but many a time
+my visitors have expressed unbounded surprise when they saw these plants
+in my garden, saying, "I should have thought that you <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_267" name="Page_267"></a>[267]</span>would
+have despised Geraniums." On the contrary, I love Geraniums. There are
+no plants to come near them for pot, or box, or stone basket, or for
+massing in any sheltered place in hottest sunshine; and I love their
+strangely-pleasant smell, and their beautiful modern colourings of soft
+scarlet and salmon-scarlet and salmon-pink, some of these grouping
+beautifully together. I have a space in connection with some formal
+stonework of steps, and tank, and paved walks, close to the house, on
+purpose for the summer placing of large pots of Geranium, with sometimes
+a few Cannas and Lilies. For a quarter of the year it is one of the best
+things in the garden, and delightful in colour. Then no plant does so
+well or looks so suitable in some earthen pots and boxes from Southern
+Italy that I always think the best that were ever made, their shape and
+well-designed ornament traditional from the Middle Ages, and probably
+from an even more remote antiquity.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/267top_a.jpg" width="400" height="293" alt="Geraniums in Neapolitan Pots." title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/267bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="289" alt="Geraniums in Neapolitan Pots." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Geraniums in Neapolitan Pots.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There are, of course, among bedding Geraniums many of a bad, raw quality
+of colour, particularly among cold, hard pinks, but there are so many to
+choose from that these can easily be avoided.</p>
+
+<p>I remember some years ago, when the bedding fashion was going out,
+reading some rather heated discussions in the gardening papers about
+methods of planting out and arranging various tender but indispensable
+plants. Some one who had been writing about the errors of the bedding
+system wrote about <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_268" name="Page_268"></a>[268]</span>planting some of these in isolated masses.
+He was pounced upon by another, who asked, "What is this but bedding?"
+The second writer was so far justified, in that it cannot be denied that
+any planting in beds is bedding. But then there is bedding and
+bedding&mdash;a right and a wrong way of applying the treatment. Another
+matter that roused the combative spirit of the captious critic was the
+filling up of bare spaces in mixed borders with Geraniums, Calceolarias,
+and other such plants. Again he said, "What is this but bedding? These
+are bedding plants." When I read this it seemed to me that his argument
+was, These plants may be very good plants in themselves, but because
+they have for some years been used wrongly, therefore they must not now
+be used rightly! In the case of my own visitors, when they have
+expressed surprise at my having "those horrid old bedding plants" in my
+garden, it seemed quite a new view when I pointed out that bedding
+plants were only passive agents in their own misuse, and that a Geranium
+was a Geranium long before it was a bedding plant! But the discussion
+raised in my mind a wish to come to some conclusion about the difference
+between bedding in the better and worse sense, in relation to the cases
+quoted, and it appeared to me to be merely in the choice between right
+and wrong placing&mdash;placing monotonously or stupidly, so as merely to
+fill the space, or placing with a feeling for "drawing" or proportion.
+For I had very soon found out that, if I had a number <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_269" name="Page_269"></a>[269]</span>of
+things to plant anywhere, whether only to fill up a border or as a
+detached group, if I placed the things myself, carefully exercising what
+power of discrimination I might have acquired, it looked fairly right,
+but that if I left it to one of my garden people (a thing I rarely do)
+it looked all nohow, or like bedding in the worst sense of the word.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/268top_a.jpg" width="400" height="295" alt="Space in Step and Tank-garden for Lilies, Cannas, and
+Geraniums." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Space in Step and Tank-garden for Lilies, Cannas, and
+Geraniums.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a id="image268" name="image268"></a>
+<img src="images/268bottom_a.jpg" width="400" height="296" alt="Hydrangeas in Tubs, in a part of the same Garden." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Hydrangeas in Tubs, in a part of the same Garden.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Even the better ways of gardening do not wholly escape the debasing
+influence of fashion. Wild gardening is a delightful, and in good hands
+a most desirable, pursuit, but no kind of gardening is so difficult to
+do well, or is so full of pitfalls and of paths of peril. Because it has
+in some measure become fashionable, and because it is understood to mean
+the planting of exotics in wild places, unthinking people rush to the
+conclusion that they can put any garden plants into any wild places, and
+that that is wild gardening. I have seen woody places that were already
+perfect with their own simple charm just muddled and spoilt by a
+reckless planting of garden refuse, and heathy hillsides already
+sufficiently and beautifully clothed with native vegetation made to look
+lamentably silly by the planting of a nurseryman's mixed lot of exotic
+Conifers.</p>
+
+<p>In my own case, I have always devoted the most careful consideration to
+any bit of wild gardening I thought of doing, never allowing myself to
+decide upon it till I felt thoroughly assured that the place seemed to
+ask for the planting in contemplation, and that it would be distinctly a
+gain in <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_270" name="Page_270"></a>[270]</span>pictorial value; so there are stretches of Daffodils in
+one part of the copse, while another is carpeted with Lily of the
+Valley. A cool bank is covered with Gaultheria, and just where I thought
+they would look well as little jewels of beauty, are spreading patches
+of Trillium and the great yellow Dog-tooth Violet. Besides these there
+are only some groups of the Giant Lily. Many other exotic plants could
+have been made to grow in the wooded ground, but they did not seem to be
+wanted; I thought where the copse looked well and complete in itself it
+was better left alone.</p>
+
+<p>But where the wood joins the garden some bold groups of flowering plants
+are allowed, as of Mullein in one part and Foxglove in another; for when
+standing in the free part of the garden, it is pleasant to project the
+sight far into the wood, and to let the garden influences penetrate here
+and there, the better to join the one to the other.</p>
+
+<div class="floatleft" style="width: 260px">
+<img src="images/270left_a.jpg" width="260" height="350" alt="Mullein (Verbascum phlomoides) at the Edge of the Fir Wood." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Mullein (Verbascum phlomoides) at the Edge of the Fir Wood.</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class="floatright" style="width: 260px">
+<img src="images/270right_a.jpg" width="260" height="350" alt="A Grass Path in the Copse." title=""/>
+<span class="caption">A Grass Path in the Copse.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="nofloat">Under the Bracken in both pictures is a wide planting of Lily of the Valley, flowering in May before the Fern is up. (<i>See page <a href="#Page_061">61</a>.</i>)</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_271" name="Page_271"></a>[271]</div>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h4>MASTERS AND MEN</h4>
+
+
+<p><br />Now that the owners of good places are for the most part taking a
+newly-awakened and newly-educated pleasure in the better ways of
+gardening, a frequent source of difficulty arises from the ignorance and
+obstructiveness of gardeners. The owners have become aware that their
+gardens may be sources of the keenest pleasure. The gardener may be an
+excellent man, perfectly understanding the ordinary routine of garden
+work; he may have been many years in his place; it is his settled home,
+and he is getting well on into middle life; but he has no understanding
+of the new order of things, and when the master, perfectly understanding
+what he is about, desires that certain things shall be done, and wishes
+to enjoy the pleasure of directing the work himself, and seeing it grow
+under his hand, he resents it as an interference, and becomes
+obstructive, or does what is required in a spirit of such sullen
+acquiescence that it is equal to open opposition. And I have seen so
+many gardens and gardeners that I have come to recognise certain types;
+and this one, among men of a certain age, is unfortunately frequent.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_272" name="Page_272"></a>[272]</span>Various degrees of ignorance and narrow-mindedness must no doubt
+be expected among the class that produces private gardeners. Their
+general education is not very wide to begin with, and their training is
+usually all in one groove, and the many who possess a full share of
+vanity get to think that, because they have exhausted the obvious
+sources of experience that have occurred within their reach, there is
+nothing more to learn, or to know, or to see, or to feel, or to enjoy.
+It is in this that the difficulty lies. The man has no doubt done his
+best through life; he has performed his duties well and faithfully, and
+can render a good account of his stewardship. It is no fault of his that
+more means of enlarging his mind have not been within his grasp, and, to
+a certain degree, he may be excused for not understanding that there is
+anything beyond; but if he is naturally vain and stubborn his case is
+hopeless. If, on the other hand, he is wise enough to know that he does
+not know everything, and modest enough to acknowledge it, as do all the
+greatest and most learned of men, he will then be eager to receive new
+and enlarged impressions, and his willing and intelligent co-operation
+will be a new source of interest in life both to himself and his
+employer, as well as a fresh spring of vitality in the life of the
+garden. I am speaking of the large middle class of private gardeners,
+not of those of the highest rank, who have among them men of good
+education and a large measure of refinement. From among these I
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273" name="Page_273"></a>[273]</span>think of the late Mr. Ingram of the Belvoir Castle gardens, with
+regret as for a personal friend, and also as of one who was a true
+garden artist.</p>
+
+<p>But most people who have fair-sized gardens have to do with the middle
+class of gardener, the man of narrow mental training. The master who,
+after a good many years of active life, is looking forward to settling
+in his home and improving and enjoying his garden, has had so different
+a training, a course of teaching so immeasurably wider and more
+enlightening. As a boy he was in a great public school, where, by
+wholesome friction with his fellows, he had any petty or personal
+nonsense knocked out of him while still in his early "teens." Then he
+goes to college, and whether studiously inclined or not, he is already
+in the great world, always widening his ideas and experience. Then
+perhaps he is in one of the active professions, or engaged in scientific
+or intellectual research, or in diplomacy, his ever-expanding
+intelligence rubbing up against all that is most enlightened and astute
+in men, or most profoundly inexplicable in matter. He may be at the same
+time cultivating his taste for literature and the fine arts, searching
+the libraries and galleries of the civilised world for the noblest and
+most divinely-inspired examples of human work, seeing with an eye that
+daily grows more keenly searching, and receiving and holding with a
+brain that ever gains a firmer grasp, and so acquires some measure of
+the higher critical faculty. He sees the ruined gardens of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274" name="Page_274"></a>[274]</span>antiquity, colossal works of the rulers of Imperial Rome, and
+the later gardens of the Middle Ages (direct descendants of those
+greater and older ones), some of them still among the most beautiful
+gardens on earth. He sees how the taste for gardening grew and
+travelled, spreading through Europe and reaching England, first, no
+doubt, through her Roman invaders. He becomes more and more aware of
+what great and enduring happiness may be enjoyed in a garden, and how
+all that he can learn of it in the leisure intervals of his earlier
+maturity, and then in middle life, will help to brighten his later days,
+when he hopes to refine and make better the garden of the old home by a
+reverent application of what he has learnt. He thinks of the desecrated
+old bowling-green, cut up to suit the fashion of thirty years ago into a
+patchwork of incoherent star and crescent shaped beds; of how he will
+give it back its ancient character of unbroken repose; he thinks how he
+will restore the string of fish-ponds in the bottom of the wooded valley
+just below, now a rushy meadow with swampy hollows that once were ponds,
+and humpy mounds, ruins of the ancient dikes; of how the trees will
+stand reflected in the still water; and how he will live to see again in
+middle hours of summer days, as did the monks of old, the broad backs of
+the golden carp basking just below the surface of the sun-warmed water.</p>
+
+<p>And such a man as this comes home some day and finds the narrow-minded
+gardener, who believes that he already knows all that can be known about
+gardening, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275" name="Page_275"></a>[275]</span>who thinks that the merely technical part, which he
+perfectly understands, is all that there is to be known and practised,
+and that his crude ideas about arrangement of flowers are as good as
+those of any one else. And a man of this temperament cannot be induced
+to believe, and still less can he be made to understand, that all that
+he knows is only the means to a further and higher end, and that what he
+can show of a completed garden can only reach to an average dead-level
+of dulness compared with what may come of the life-giving influence of
+one who has the mastery of the higher garden knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, he either forgets, or does not know, what is the main purpose
+of a garden, namely, that it is to give its owner the best and highest
+kind of earthly pleasure. Neither is he enlightened enough to understand
+that the master can take a real and intelligent interest in planning and
+arranging, and in watching the working out in detail. His small-minded
+vanity can only see in all this a distrust in his own powers and an
+intentional slight cast on his ability, whereas no such idea had ever
+entered the master's mind.</p>
+
+<p>Though there are many of this kind of gardener (and with their
+employers, if they have the patience to retain them in their service, I
+sincerely condole), there are happily many of a widely-different nature,
+whose minds are both supple and elastic and intelligently receptive, who
+are eager to learn and to try what has not yet come within the range of
+their experience, <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276" name="Page_276"></a>[276]</span>who show a cheerful readiness to receive a
+fresh range of ideas, and a willing alacrity in doing their best to work
+them out. Such a servant as this warms his master's heart, and it would
+do him good to hear, as I have many times heard, the terms in which the
+master speaks of him. For just as the educated man feels contempt for
+the vulgar pretension that goes with any exhibition of ignorant vanity,
+so the evidence of the higher qualities commands his respect and warm
+appreciation. Among the gardeners I have known, five such men come
+vividly to my recollection&mdash;good men all, with a true love of flowers,
+and its reflection of happiness written on their kindly faces.</p>
+
+<p>But then, on the other hand, frequent causes of irritation arise between
+master and man from the master's ignorance and unreasonable demands. For
+much as the love of gardening has grown of late, there are many owners
+who have no knowledge of it whatever. I have more than once had visitors
+who complained of their gardeners, as I thought quite unreasonably, on
+their own showing. For it is not enough to secure the services of a
+thoroughly able man, and to pay good wages, and to provide every sort of
+appliance, if there is no reasonable knowledge of what it is right and
+just to expect. I have known a lady, after paying a round of visits in
+great houses, complain of her gardener. She had seen at one place
+remarkably fine forced strawberries, at another some phenomenal frame
+Violets, and at a third immense <span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277" name="Page_277"></a>[277]</span>Malmaison Carnations; whereas
+her own gardener did not excel in any of these, though she admitted that
+he was admirable for Grapes and Chrysanthemums. "If the others could do
+all these things to perfection," she argued, "why could not he do them?"
+She expected her gardener to do equally well all that she had seen best
+done in the other big places. It was in vain that I pleaded in defence
+of her man that all gardeners were human creatures, and that it was in
+the nature of such creatures to have individual aptitudes and special
+preferences, and that it was to be expected that each man should excel
+in one thing, or one thing at a time, and so on; but it was of no use,
+and she would not accept any excuse or explanation.</p>
+
+<p>I remember another example of a visitor who had a rather large place,
+and a gardener who had as good a knowledge of hardy plants as one could
+expect. My visitor had lately got the idea that he liked hardy flowers,
+though he had scarcely thrown off the influence of some earlier heresy
+which taught that they were more or less contemptible&mdash;the sort of thing
+for cottage gardens; still, as they were now in fashion, he thought he
+had better have them. We were passing along my flower-border, just then
+in one of its best moods of summer beauty, and when its main occupants,
+three years planted, had come to their full strength, when, speaking of
+a large flower-border he had lately had made, he said, "I told my fellow
+last autumn to get anything he liked, and yet it is perfectly wretched.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278" name="Page_278"></a>[278]</span>It is not as if I wanted anything out of the way; I only want a
+lot of common things like that," waving a hand airily at my precious
+border, while scarcely taking the trouble to look at it.</p>
+
+<p>And I have had another visitor of about the same degree of appreciative
+insight, who, contemplating some cherished garden picture, the
+consummation of some long-hoped-for wish, the crowning joy of years of
+labour, said, "Now look at that; it is just right, and yet it is quite
+simple&mdash;there is absolutely nothing in it; now, why can't my man give me
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>I am far from wishing to disparage or undervalue the services of the
+honest gardener, but I think that on this point there ought to be the
+clearest understanding; that the master must not expect from the
+gardener accomplishments that he has no means of acquiring, and that the
+gardener must not assume that his knowledge covers all that can come
+within the scope of the widest and best practice of his craft. There are
+branches of education entirely out of his reach that can be brought to
+bear upon garden planning and arrangement down to the very least detail.
+What the educated employer who has studied the higher forms of gardening
+can do or criticise, he cannot be expected to do or understand; it is in
+itself almost the work of a lifetime, and only attainable, like success
+in any other fine art, by persons of, firstly, special temperament and
+aptitude; and, secondly, by their unwearied study and closest
+application.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279" name="Page_279"></a>[279]</span>But the result of knowledge so gained shows itself throughout
+the garden. It may be in so simple a thing as the placing of a group of
+plants. They can be so placed by the hand that knows, that the group is
+in perfect drawing in relation to what is near; while by the ordinary
+gardener they would be so planted that they look absurd, or unmeaning,
+or in some way awkward and unsightly. It is not enough to cultivate
+plants well; they must also be used well. The servant may set up the
+canvas and grind the colours, and even set the palette, but the master
+alone can paint the picture. It is just the careful and thoughtful
+exercise of the higher qualities that makes a garden interesting, and
+their absence that leaves it blank, and dull, and lifeless. I am
+heartily in sympathy with the feeling described in these words in a
+friend's letter, "I think there are few things so interesting as to see
+in what way a person, whose perceptions you think fine and worthy of
+study, will give them expression in a garden."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280" name="Page_280"></a>[280]</div>
+<h2>INDEX</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Adonis vernalis, <a href="#Page_052">52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Alcohol, its gravestone, <a href="#Page_012">12</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Alexandrian laurel, <a href="#Page_016">16</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Alströmerias, best kinds, how to plant, <a href="#Page_092">92</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Amelanchier, <a href="#Page_052">52</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ampelopsis, <a href="#Page_043">43</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Andromeda Catesbæi, <a href="#Page_037">37</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A. floribunda and A. japonica, <a href="#Page_050">50</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">autumn colouring, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Anemone fulgens, <a href="#Page_057">57</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">japonica, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Aponogeton, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Apple, Wellington, <a href="#Page_012">12</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">apple-trees, beauty of form, <a href="#Page_025">25</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Aristolochia Sipho, <a href="#Page_043">43</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Arnebia echioides, <a href="#Page_056">56</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Aromatic plants, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Artemisia Stelleriana, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Arum, wild, leaves with cut daffodils, <a href="#Page_058">58</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Auriculas, <a href="#Page_054">54</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">seed stolen by mice, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Autumn-sown annuals, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Azaleas, arrangement for colour, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">A. occidentalis, <a href="#Page_070">70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">autumn colouring, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">as trained for shows, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bambusa Ragamowski, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Beauty of woodland in winter, <a href="#Page_007">7</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Beauty the first aim in gardening, <a href="#Page_002">2</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bedding-out as a fashion, <a href="#Page_263">263</a> and onward;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">bedding rightly used, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Berberis for winter decoration, <a href="#Page_016">16</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">its many merits, <a href="#Page_021">21</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bignonia radicans, large-flowered variety, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Birch, its graceful growth, <a href="#Page_008">8</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">colour of bark, <a href="#Page_009">9</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">fragrance in April, <a href="#Page_051">51</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">grouped with holly, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bird-cherry, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bitton, Canon Ellacombe's garden at, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Blue-eyed Mary, <a href="#Page_044">44</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Books on gardening, <a href="#Page_192">192</a> and onward</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Border plants, their young growth in April, <a href="#Page_051">51</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bracken, <a href="#Page_087">87</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">cut into layering-pegs, <a href="#Page_098">98</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">careful cutting, <a href="#Page_099">99</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">when at its best to cut, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">autumn colouring, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bramble, colour of leaves in winter, <a href="#Page_020">20</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">in forest groups, <a href="#Page_044">44</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">in orchard, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">American kinds, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Briar roses, <a href="#Page_080">80</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bryony, the two wild kinds, <a href="#Page_043">43</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bulbous plants, early blooming, how best to plant, <a href="#Page_049">49</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Bullfinch, a garden enemy, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Butcher's broom, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281" name="Page_281"></a>[281]</span>Cactus, hardy, on rock-wall, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Caltha palustris, <a href="#Page_052">52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Campanula rapunculus, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cardamine trifoliata, <a href="#Page_050">50</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Carnations, <a href="#Page_094">94</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">at shows, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Caryopteris mastacanthus, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ceanothus, Gloire de Versailles, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cheiranthus, alpine kinds, <a href="#Page_062">62</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Chimonanthus fragrans, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Chionodoxa sardensis and C. Lucilliæ, <a href="#Page_032">32</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Choisya ternata, <a href="#Page_063">63</a>, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Christmas rose, giant kind, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Chrysanthemums, hardy kinds, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">as trained at shows, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cistus laurifolius, <a href="#Page_037">37</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">C. florentinus, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">C. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'ladaniferns'">ladaniferus</ins>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Claret vine, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Clematis cirrhosa, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">C. flammula when to train, <a href="#Page_024">24</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">wild clematis in trees and hedges, <a href="#Page_043">43</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">C. montana, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">C. Davidiana, <a href="#Page_095">95</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Clergymen as gardeners, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Clerodendron f&oelig;tidum, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Climbing plants, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">for pergola, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Colour, of woodland in winter, <a href="#Page_019">19</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">of leaves of some garden plants, <a href="#Page_021">21</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">colour-grouping of rhododendrons, <a href="#Page_066">66</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">of azaleas, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">colour of foliage of tree pæonies, <a href="#Page_073">73</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">colour arrangement in the flower-border, <a href="#Page_089">89</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">colour of bracken in October, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">of azaleas and andromedas in autumn, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">of bark of holly, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">study of, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">of flowers, how described, <a href="#Page_221">221</a> and onward</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Copse-cutting, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Corchorus japonicus, <a href="#Page_050">50</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Coronilla varia, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Corydalis capnoides, <a href="#Page_050">50</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cottage gardens, <a href="#Page_004">4</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">roses in, <a href="#Page_079">79</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cottager's way of protecting tender plants, <a href="#Page_091">91</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Cowslips, <a href="#Page_059">59</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Crinums, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Crinums, hybrid, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">protecting, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Crocuses, eaten by pheasants, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Daffodils in the copse, <a href="#Page_034">34</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">planted in old pack-horse tracks, <a href="#Page_048">48</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dahlias, staking, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">digging up, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Delphiniums, <a href="#Page_089">89</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">grown from seed, <a href="#Page_090">90</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">D. Belladonna, <a href="#Page_091">91</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dentaria pinnata, <a href="#Page_046">46</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Deutzia parviflora, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Digging up plants, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Discussions about treatment of certain plants, <a href="#Page_003">3</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dividing tough-rooted plants, <a href="#Page_053">53</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">spring-blooming plants, <a href="#Page_085">85</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">how often, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">suitable tools, <a href="#Page_136">136</a> and onward</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dog-tooth violets, <a href="#Page_033">33</a>, <a href="#Page_047">47</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Doronicum, <a href="#Page_053">53</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dressing of show flowers, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dried flowers, <a href="#Page_017">17</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dwarfing annuals, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Edwardsia grandiflora, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Elder trees, <a href="#Page_083">83</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">elder-wine, <a href="#Page_084">84</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Epilobium angustifolium, white variety, <a href="#Page_086">86</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Epimedium pinnatum, <a href="#Page_016">16</a>, <a href="#Page_046">46</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Erinus alpinus, sown in rock-wall, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Eryngium giganteum, <a href="#Page_093">93</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">E. maritimum, <a href="#Page_093">93</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">E. <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Olivieranum'">Oliverianum</ins>, <a href="#Page_093">93</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Eulalia japonica, flowers dried, <a href="#Page_017">17</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282" name="Page_282"></a>[282]</span>Evergreen branches for winter decoration, <a href="#Page_016">16</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Everlasting pea, dividing and propagating, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Experimental planting, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Felling trees, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fern Filix f&oelig;mina in rhododendron beds, <a href="#Page_037">37</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Dicksonia punctilobulata, <a href="#Page_062">62</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">ferns in rock-wall, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">polypody, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fern-pegs for layering carnations, <a href="#Page_098">98</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fern-walk, suitable plants among groups of ferns, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Flower border, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Forms of deciduous trees, beauty of, <a href="#Page_025">25</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Forsythia suspensa and F. viridissima, <a href="#Page_050">50</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Forget-me-not, large kind, <a href="#Page_053">53</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Foxgloves, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fungi, Amanita, Boletus, Chantarelle, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Funkia grandiflora, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Galax aphylla, colour of leaves in winter, <a href="#Page_021">21</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gale, broad-leaved, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Garden friends, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Garden houses, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gardening, a fine art, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Garrya elliptica, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gaultheria Shallon, value for cutting, <a href="#Page_016">16</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">in rock-garden, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Geraniums as bedding plants, <a href="#Page_266">266</a> and onward</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gourds, as used by Mrs. Earle, <a href="#Page_018">18</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Goutweed, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Grape hyacinths, <a href="#Page_049">49</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Grass, Sheep's-fescue, <a href="#Page_069">69</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Grasses for lawn, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Grey-foliaged plants, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Grouping plants that bloom together, <a href="#Page_070">70</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Grubbing, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">tools, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Guelder-rose as a wall-plant, <a href="#Page_071">71</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">single kind, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Gypsophila paniculata, <a href="#Page_095">95</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Half-hardy border plants in August, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Happiness in gardening, <a href="#Page_001">1</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hares, as depredators, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Heath sods for protecting tender plants, <a href="#Page_091">91</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Heaths, filling up Rhododendron beds, <a href="#Page_037">37</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">wild heath among azaleas, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">cut short in paths, <a href="#Page_070">70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">ling, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hellebores, caulescent kinds in the nut-walk, <a href="#Page_009">9</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">for cutting, <a href="#Page_057">57</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">buds stolen by mice, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Heuchera Richardsoni, <a href="#Page_053">53</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Holly, beauty in winter, <a href="#Page_008">8</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">grouped with birch, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">cheerful aspect, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hollyhocks, the prettiest shape, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Honey-suckle, wild, <a href="#Page_043">43</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hoof-parings as manure, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hoop-making, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, and onward</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hop, wild, <a href="#Page_043">43</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hutchinsia alpina, <a href="#Page_050">50</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hyacinth (wild) in oak-wood, <a href="#Page_060">60</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hydrangeas, protecting, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">at foot of wall, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Hyssop, a good wall-plant, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Iris alata, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I. f&oelig;tidissima, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">I. pallida, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Iris stylosa, how to plant, <a href="#Page_013">13</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">white variety, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">time of blooming, <a href="#Page_033">33</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ivy, shoots for cutting, <a href="#Page_017">17</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283" name="Page_283"></a>[283]</span>Japan Privet, foliage for winter decoration, <a href="#Page_016">16</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Japan Quince (Cydonia or Pyrus), <a href="#Page_050">50</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Jasminum nudiflorum, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Junction of garden and wood, <a href="#Page_034">34</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Juniper, its merits, <a href="#Page_026">26</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">its form, action of snow, <a href="#Page_027">27</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">power of recovery from damage, <a href="#Page_029">29</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">beauty of colouring, <a href="#Page_030">30</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">stems in winter dress, <a href="#Page_031">31</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">in a wild valley, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, and onward</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Kitchen-garden, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">its sheds, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Larch, sweetness in April, <a href="#Page_051">51</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Large gardens, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lavender, when to cut, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lawn-making, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">lawn spaces, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Leaf mould, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Learning, <a href="#Page_005">5</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lessons of the garden, <a href="#Page_006">6</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">in wild-tree planting, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">in orchard planting, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">of the show-table, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Leucojum vernum, <a href="#Page_033">33</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Leycesteria formosa, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lilacs, suckers, as strong feeders, good kinds, <a href="#Page_023">23</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">standards best, <a href="#Page_024">24</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lilium auratum among rhododendrons, <a href="#Page_037">37</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">among bamboos, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lilium giganteum, <a href="#Page_095">95</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">cultivation needed in poor soil, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lilium Harrisi and L. speciosum, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Lily of the valley in the copse, <a href="#Page_061">61</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Linaria repens, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">London Pride in the rock-wall, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Loquat, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Love-in-a-mist, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Love of gardening, <a href="#Page_001">1</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Luzula sylvatica, <a href="#Page_061">61</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Magnolia, branches indoors in winter, <a href="#Page_016">16</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">magnolia stellata, <a href="#Page_050">50</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">kinds in the choice shrub-bank, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mai-trank, <a href="#Page_060">60</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Marking trees for cutting, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Marsh marigold, <a href="#Page_052">52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Masters and men, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mastic, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Meconopsis Wallichi, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Medlar, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Megaseas, colour of foliage, <a href="#Page_017">17</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">M. ligulata, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">in front edge of flower-border, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mertensia virginica, <a href="#Page_046">46</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">sowing the seed, <a href="#Page_084">84</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mice, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Michaelmas daisies, a garden to themselves, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">planting and staking, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">early kinds in mixed border, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mixed planting, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">mixed border, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Morells, <a href="#Page_059">59</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mulleins (V. olympicum and V. phlomoides), <a href="#Page_085">85</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">mullein-moth, <a href="#Page_086">86</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Muscari of kinds, <a href="#Page_049">49</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Musical reverberation in wood of Scotch fir, <a href="#Page_060">60</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Myosotis sylvatica major, <a href="#Page_053">53</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nandina domestica, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Narcissus cernuus, <a href="#Page_012">12</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">N. serotinus, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">N. princeps and N. Horsfieldi in the copse, <a href="#Page_048">48</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nature's planting, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nettles, to destroy, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Novelty, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nut nursery at Calcot, <a href="#Page_011">11</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Nut-walk, <a href="#Page_009">9</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">catkins, <a href="#Page_011">11</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">suckers, <a href="#Page_011">11</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284" name="Page_284"></a>[284]</span>Oak timber, felling, <a href="#Page_060">60</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Old wall, <a href="#Page_072">72</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a> and onward</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Omphalodes verna, <a href="#Page_045">45</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ophiopogon spicatum for winter cutting, <a href="#Page_016">16</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Orchard, ornamental, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Orobus vernus, <a href="#Page_052">52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">O. aurantiacus, <a href="#Page_062">62</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Othonna cheirifolia, <a href="#Page_063">63</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pæonies and Lent Hellebores grown together, <a href="#Page_076">76</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pæony moutan grouped with Clematis montana, <a href="#Page_070">70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">special garden for pæonies, <a href="#Page_072">72</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">frequent sudden deaths, <a href="#Page_073">73</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">varieties of P. albiflora, <a href="#Page_074">74</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">old garden kinds, <a href="#Page_075">75</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">pæony species desirable for garden use, <a href="#Page_075">75</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pansies as cut flowers, <a href="#Page_057">57</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">at shows, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Parkinson's chapter on carnations, <a href="#Page_094">94</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pavia macrostachya, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pea, white everlasting, <a href="#Page_095">95</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pergola, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pernettya, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pests, bird, beast, and insect, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Phacelia campanularia, <a href="#Page_063">63</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pheasants, as depredators, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">destroying crocuses, <a href="#Page_261">261</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Philadelphus microphyllus, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Phlomis fruticosa, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Phloxes, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Piptanthus nepalensis, <a href="#Page_063">63</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Planes pollarded, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Planting early, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">careful planting, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">planting from pots, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">careful tree planting, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Platycodon Mariesi, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Plume hyacinth, <a href="#Page_049">49</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Polygala chamæbuxus, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Polygonum compactum, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Sieboldi, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden," <a href="#Page_018">18</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Primroses, white and lilac, <a href="#Page_044">44</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">large bunch-flowered kinds as cut flowers, <a href="#Page_058">58</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">seedlings planted out, <a href="#Page_085">85</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">primrose garden, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Primula denticulata, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Progress in gardening, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Prophet-flower (Arnebia), <a href="#Page_056">56</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Protecting tender plants, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pterocephalus parnassi, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pyrus Maulei, <a href="#Page_050">50</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Queen wasps, <a href="#Page_063">63</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Quince, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rabbits, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ranunculus montanus, <a href="#Page_050">50</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Raphiolepis ovata, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rhododendrons, variation in foliage, <a href="#Page_035">35</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">R. multum maculatum, <a href="#Page_035">35</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">plants to fill bare spaces among, <a href="#Page_037">37</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">arrangement for colour, <a href="#Page_064">64</a> and onward;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">hybrid of R. Aucklandi, <a href="#Page_069">69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">alpine, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ribbon border, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ribes, <a href="#Page_050">50</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Robinia hispida, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rock garden, making and renewing, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rock-wall, <a href="#Page_116">116</a> and onward</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rosemary, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Roses, pruning, tying, and training, <a href="#Page_038">38</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">fence planted with free roses, <a href="#Page_038">38</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Reine Olga de Wurtemburg, <a href="#Page_038">38</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">climbing and rambling roses, <a href="#Page_039">39</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Fortune's yellow, Banksian, <a href="#Page_040">40</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">wild roses, <a href="#Page_043">43</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">garden roses: Provence, moss, damask, R. alba, <a href="#Page_078">78</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">roses in cottage gardens, ramblers and fountains, <a href="#Page_079">79</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">free growth of Rosa polyantha, <a href="#Page_080">80</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">two good, free roses for cutting, <a href="#Page_080">80</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Burnet </span><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285" name="Page_285"></a>[285]</span>rose and Scotch briars, Rosa lucida, <a href="#Page_081">81</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">tea roses: best kinds for light soil, pegging, pruning, <a href="#Page_082">82</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">roses collected in Capri, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">second bloom of tea roses, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">jam made of hips of R. rugosa, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">R. arvensis, garden form of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">R. Boursault elegans, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">China, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">their scents, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ruscus aculeatus, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">R. racemosus, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ruta patavina, a late-flowering rock-plant, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sambucus ebulis, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Satin-leaf (Heuchera Richardsoni), <a href="#Page_053">53</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Scilla maritima, <a href="#Page_014">14</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">S. sibirica, S. bifolia, <a href="#Page_032">32</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Scents of flowers, <a href="#Page_229">229</a> and onward</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Scotch fir, pollen, <a href="#Page_053">53</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">cones opening, <a href="#Page_054">54</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">effect of sound in fir-wood, <a href="#Page_060">60</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Show flowers, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Show-table, what it teaches, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Shrub-bank, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">snug place for tender shrubs, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Shrub-wilderness of the old home, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Skimmeas, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Slugs, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Smilacina bifolia, <a href="#Page_061">61</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Snapdragon, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Snowstorm of December 1886, <a href="#Page_027">27</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Snowy Mespilus (Amelanchier), <a href="#Page_052">52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Solanum crispum, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Solomon's seal, <a href="#Page_061">61</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Spindle-tree, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Spiræa Thunbergi, <a href="#Page_050">50</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">S. prunifolia, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">St. John's worts, choice, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Stephanandra flexuosa, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sternbergia lutea, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sticks and stakes, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Storms in autumn, <a href="#Page_122">122</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Styrax japonica, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Suckers of nuts, <a href="#Page_011">11</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">robbers, how to remove, <a href="#Page_024">24</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">on grafted rhododendrons, <a href="#Page_036">36</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sunflowers, perennial, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sweetbriar, rambling, <a href="#Page_039">39</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">fragrance in April, <a href="#Page_051">51</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sweet-leaved small shrubs, <a href="#Page_034">34</a>, <a href="#Page_057">57</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Sweet peas, autumn sown, <a href="#Page_083">83</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thatching with hoop-chips, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Thinning the nut-walk, <a href="#Page_010">10</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">thinning shrubs, <a href="#Page_022">22</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">trees in copse, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tiarella cordifolia, <a href="#Page_053">53</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">colour of leaves in winter, <a href="#Page_021">21</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tools for dividing, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">for tree cutting and grubbing, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">woodman's, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">axe and wedge, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">rollers, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">cross-cut saw, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Training the eye, <a href="#Page_004">4</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">training Clematis flammula, <a href="#Page_024">24</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Transplanting large trees, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Trillium grandiflorum, <a href="#Page_061">61</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tritomas, protecting, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tulips, show kinds and their origin, <a href="#Page_055">55</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">T. retroflexa, <a href="#Page_055">55</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">other good garden kinds, <a href="#Page_056">56</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Various ways of gardening, <a href="#Page_003">3</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Verbascum olympicum and V. phlomoides, <a href="#Page_085">85</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Villa garden, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Vinca acutiflora, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Vine, black Hamburg at Calcot, <a href="#Page_012">12</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">as a wall-plant, <a href="#Page_042">42</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">good garden kinds, <a href="#Page_042">42</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">claret vine, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Vitis <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Coignetti'">Coignettii</ins>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286" name="Page_286"></a>[286]</span>Violets, the pale St. Helena, <a href="#Page_045">45</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Czar, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Virginian cowslip, <a href="#Page_046">46</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">its colouring, <a href="#Page_047">47</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">sowing seed, <a href="#Page_084">84</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wall pennywort, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Water-elder, a beautiful neglected shrub, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Weeds, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wild gardening misunderstood, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wilson, Mr. G. F.'s garden at Wisley, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Window garden, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Winter, beauty of woodland, <a href="#Page_007">7</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wistaria chinensis, <a href="#Page_043">43</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Whortleberry under Scotch fir, <a href="#Page_051">51</a>, <a href="#Page_061">61</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Woodman at work, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Woodruff, <a href="#Page_060">60</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wood-rush, <a href="#Page_061">61</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Wood-work, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Xanthoceras sorbifolia, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yellow everlasting, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Yuccas, some of the best kinds, <a href="#Page_091">91</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">in flower-border, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></span><br />
+<br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>FOOTNOTE</h3>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The planting of large vineyards, in some cases of private
+enterprise, had not proved a financial success.</p></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 35%;" />
+
+<h2>THE END</h2>
+
+
+<p class="center">Printed by <span class="smcap">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co.</span><br />
+Edinburgh &amp; London<br /></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class='tnote'>
+<h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3>
+<p class="indent">1. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained from the original (where both are acceptable usage).</p>
+<p class="indent">2. Inconsistencies in the use of capitalisation and spelling within botanical names have been retained from the original (where both are acceptable usage).</p>
+<p class="indent">3. Punctuation has been normalised.</p>
+<p class="indent">4. Page numbering format in the index has been standardised.</p>
+<p class="indent">5. Some mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved to the nearest paragraph break, and are linked accordingly.</p>
+<p class="indent">6. The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wood and Garden, by Gertrude Jekyll
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOOD AND GARDEN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 36279-h.htm or 36279-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/2/7/36279/
+
+Produced by StevenGibbs, Tracey-Ann Mayor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/36279-h/images/101left_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/101left_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a336cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/101left_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/101right_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/101right_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aeb9415
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/101right_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/105bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/105bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..513689d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/105bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/105top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/105top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5524dc6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/105top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/107bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/107bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9a40e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/107bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/107top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/107top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c2cfb2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/107top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/117left_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/117left_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89d39e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/117left_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/117right_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/117right_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9cbcd15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/117right_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/121_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/121_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe9fe06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/121_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/126bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/126bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3012393
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/126bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/126top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/126top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c13d667
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/126top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/150bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/150bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b63a78
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/150bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/150top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/150top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e4faf5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/150top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/153_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/153_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b51cb7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/153_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/154_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/154_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a583e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/154_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/156bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/156bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a8dc51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/156bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/156top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/156top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60af0db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/156top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/158_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/158_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f75ccd4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/158_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/161bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/161bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f271ad8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/161bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/161top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/161top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3371051
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/161top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/167_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/167_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..618b3bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/167_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/169left_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/169left_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5200fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/169left_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/169right_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/169right_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de1cec0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/169right_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/178_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/178_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..19b023a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/178_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/185_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/185_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e916c51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/185_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/19_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/19_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bfe9855
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/19_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/200_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/200_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53dd5a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/200_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/202bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/202bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a11748c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/202bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/202top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/202top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e025c6c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/202top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/210bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/210bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c40654a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/210bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/210top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/210top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bbe317
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/210top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/214bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/214bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..56cb4d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/214bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/214top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/214top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8800288
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/214top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/217_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/217_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89037f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/217_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/251left_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/251left_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e82bfe6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/251left_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/251right_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/251right_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c9d8067
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/251right_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/267bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/267bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab1315a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/267bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/267top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/267top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7b66452
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/267top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/268bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/268bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..841641d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/268bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/268top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/268top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2c6f35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/268top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/270left_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/270left_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4f06dfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/270left_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/270right_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/270right_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cde5767
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/270right_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/27_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/27_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee40dc4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/27_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/29left_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/29left_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..76ddae3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/29left_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/29right_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/29right_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fbd0b5e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/29right_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/39bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/39bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cea3d6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/39bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/39top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/39top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..582a648
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/39top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/43_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/43_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..386195f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/43_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/48_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/48_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..209bc4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/48_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/50_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/50_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f727ec4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/50_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/51_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/51_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f6312b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/51_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/53left_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/53left_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8070d79
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/53left_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/53right_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/53right_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd75133
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/53right_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/55bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/55bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9930440
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/55bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/55top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/55top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6a21fa7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/55top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/61_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/61_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..30a9dc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/61_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/65bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/65bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24bf6e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/65bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/65top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/65top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b4fb2af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/65top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/66left_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/66left_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0ac6609
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/66left_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/66right_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/66right_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05b6ba9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/66right_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/68_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/68_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ddbcbdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/68_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/72bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/72bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..88996ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/72bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/72top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/72top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a47fc32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/72top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/77_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/77_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..abea13a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/77_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/81_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/81_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5029237
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/81_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/82bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/82bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3b600d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/82bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/82top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/82top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46bc1aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/82top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/84bottom_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/84bottom_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f887d81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/84bottom_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/84top_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/84top_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..29410af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/84top_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/96_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/96_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ab2f21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/96_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279-h/images/decoration_a.png b/36279-h/images/decoration_a.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b66d7a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/decoration_a.png
diff --git a/36279-h/images/front_a.jpg b/36279-h/images/front_a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0b0a7d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279-h/images/front_a.jpg
diff --git a/36279.txt b/36279.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e607dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8272 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wood and Garden, by Gertrude Jekyll
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Wood and Garden
+       Notes and thoughts, practical and critical, of a working amateur
+
+Author: Gertrude Jekyll
+
+Release Date: June 1, 2011 [EBook #36279]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOOD AND GARDEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by StevenGibbs, Tracey-Ann Mayor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    WOOD AND GARDEN
+
+    [Illustration: _Frontispiece._]
+
+
+
+
+    WOOD AND GARDEN
+
+    NOTES AND THOUGHTS, PRACTICAL AND
+    CRITICAL, OF A WORKING AMATEUR
+
+    By
+
+    GERTRUDE JEKYLL
+
+    _With 71 Illustrations from Photographs
+    by the Author_
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+    Second Edition
+
+    Longmans, Green, and Co.
+    39 Paternoster Row, London
+    New York and Bombay
+
+    1899
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+    Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+    At the Ballantyne Press
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+From its simple nature, this book seems scarcely to need any prefatory
+remarks, with the exception only of certain acknowledgments.
+
+A portion of the contents (about one-third) appeared during the years
+1896 and 1897 in the pages of the _Guardian_, as "Notes from Garden and
+Woodland." I am indebted to the courtesy of the editor and proprietors
+of that journal for permission to republish these notes.
+
+The greater part of the photographs from which the illustrations have
+been prepared were done on my own ground--a space of some fifteen acres.
+Some of them, owing to my want of technical ability as a photographer,
+were very weak, and have only been rendered available by the skill of
+the reproducer, for whose careful work my thanks are due.
+
+A small number of the photographs were done for reproduction in
+wood-engraving for Mr. Robinson's _Garden_, _Gardening Illustrated_, and
+_English Flower Garden_. I have his kind permission to use the original
+plates.
+
+                                                                 G. J.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+    INTRODUCTORY                                                 1-6
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+    JANUARY                                                      7-18
+
+    Beauty of woodland in winter -- The nut-walk --
+    Thinning the overgrowth -- A nut nursery -- _Iris
+    stylosa_ -- Its culture -- Its home in Algeria --
+    Discovery of the white variety -- Flowers and branches
+    for indoor decoration.
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+    FEBRUARY                                                    19-31
+
+    Distant promise of summer -- Ivy-berries -- Coloured
+    leaves -- _Berberis Aquifolium_ -- Its many merits --
+    Thinning and pruning shrubs -- Lilacs -- Removing
+    Suckers -- Training _Clematis flammula_ -- Forms of
+    trees -- Juniper, a neglected native evergreen --
+    Effect of snow -- Power of recovery -- Beauty of colour
+    -- Moss-grown stems.
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+    MARCH                                                       32-45
+
+    Flowering bulbs -- Dog-tooth Violet -- Rock-garden --
+    Variety of Rhododendron foliage -- A beautiful old
+    kind -- Suckers on grafted plants -- Plants for
+    filling up the beds -- Heaths -- Andromedas -- Lady
+    Fern -- _Lilium auratum_ -- Pruning Roses -- Training
+    and tying climbing plants -- Climbing and free-growing
+    Roses -- The Vine the best wall-covering -- Other
+    climbers -- Wild Clematis -- Wild Rose.
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+    APRIL                                                       46-58
+
+    Woodland spring flowers -- Daffodils in the copse --
+    Grape Hyacinths and other spring bulbs -- How best to
+    plant them -- Flowering shrubs -- Rock-plants -- Sweet
+    scents of April -- Snowy Mespilus, Marsh Marigolds,
+    and other spring flowers -- Primrose garden -- Pollen
+    of Scotch Fir -- Opening seed-pods of Fir and Gorse --
+    Auriculas -- Tulips -- Small shrubs for rock-garden --
+    Daffodils as cut flowers -- Lent Hellebores --
+    Primroses -- Leaves of wild Arum.
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+    MAY                                                         59-76
+
+    Cowslips -- Morells -- Woodruff -- Felling oak timber --
+    Trillium and other wood-plants -- Lily of the Valley
+    naturalised -- Rock-wall flowers -- Two good wall-shrubs
+    -- Queen wasps -- Rhododendrons -- Arrangement for colour
+    -- Separate colour-groups -- Difficulty of choosing --
+    Hardy Azaleas -- Grouping flowers that bloom together --
+    Guelder-rose as climber -- The garden-wall door -- The
+    Paeony garden -- Moutans -- Paeony varieties -- Species
+    desirable for garden.
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+    JUNE                                                        77-88
+
+    The gladness of June -- The time of Roses -- Garden
+    Roses -- Reine Blanche -- The old white Rose -- Old
+    garden Roses as standards -- Climbing and rambling Roses
+    -- Scotch Briars -- Hybrid Perpetuals a difficulty --
+    Tea Roses -- Pruning -- Sweet Peas autumn sown --
+    Elder-trees -- Virginian Cowslip -- Dividing
+    spring-blooming plants -- Two best Mulleins -- White
+    French Willow -- Bracken.
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+    JULY                                                        89-99
+
+    Scarcity of flowers -- Delphiniums -- Yuccas --
+    Cottager's way of protecting tender plants --
+    Alstroemerias -- Carnations -- Gypsophila -- _Lilium
+    giganteum_ -- Cutting fern-pegs.
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+    AUGUST                                                     100-111
+
+    Leycesteria -- Early recollections -- Bank of choice
+    shrubs -- Bank of Briar Roses -- Hollyhocks -- Lavender
+    -- Lilies -- Bracken and Heaths -- The Fern-walk --
+    Late-blooming rock-plants -- Autumn flowers -- Tea Roses
+    -- Fruit of _Rosa rugosa_ -- Fungi -- Chantarelle.
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+    SEPTEMBER                                                  112-124
+
+    Sowing Sweet Peas -- Autumn-sown annuals -- Dahlias --
+    Worthless kinds -- Staking -- Planting the rock-garden
+    -- Growing small plants in a wall -- The old wall --
+    Dry-walling -- How built -- How planted -- Hyssop -- A
+    destructive storm -- Berries of Water-elder -- Beginning
+    ground-work.
+
+  CHAPTER XI
+
+    OCTOBER                                                    125-143
+
+    Michaelmas Daisies -- Arranging and staking --
+    Spindle-tree -- Autumn colour of Azaleas -- Quinces --
+    Medlars -- Advantage of early planting of shrubs --
+    Careful planting -- Pot-bound roots -- Cypress hedge
+    -- Planting in difficult places -- Hardy flower border
+    -- Lifting Dahlias -- Dividing hardy plants --
+    Dividing tools -- Plants difficult to divide --
+    Periwinkles -- Sternbergia -- Czar Violets -- Deep
+    cultivation for _Lilium giganteum_.
+
+  CHAPTER XII
+
+    NOVEMBER                                                   144-157
+
+    Giant Christmas Rose -- Hardy Chrysanthemums --
+    Sheltering tender shrubs -- Turfing by inoculation --
+    Transplanting large trees -- Sir Henry Steuart's
+    experience early in the century -- Collecting fallen
+    leaves -- Preparing grubbing tools -- Butcher's Broom
+    -- Alexandrian Laurel -- Hollies and Birches -- A
+    lesson in planting.
+
+  CHAPTER XIII
+
+    DECEMBER                                                   158-170
+
+    The woodman at work -- Tree-cutting in frosty weather
+    -- Preparing sticks and stakes -- Winter Jasmine --
+    Ferns in the wood-walk -- Winter colour of evergreen
+    shrubs -- Copse-cutting -- Hoop-making -- Tools used
+    -- Sizes of hoops -- Men camping out -- Thatching with
+    hoop-chips -- The old thatcher's bill.
+
+  CHAPTER XIV
+
+    LARGE AND SMALL GARDENS                                    171-187
+
+    A well done villa-garden -- A small town-garden -- Two
+    delightful gardens of small size -- Twenty acres
+    within the walls -- A large country house and its
+    garden -- Terrace -- Lawn -- Parterre -- Free garden
+    -- Kitchen garden -- Buildings -- Ornamental orchard
+    -- Instructive mixed gardens -- Mr. Wilson's at Wisley
+    -- A window garden.
+
+  CHAPTER XV
+
+    BEGINNING AND LEARNING                                     188-199
+
+    The ignorant questioner -- Beginning at the end -- An
+    example -- Personal experience -- Absence of outer
+    help -- Johns' "Flowers of the Field" -- Collecting
+    plants -- Nurseries near London -- Wheel-spokes as
+    labels -- Garden friends -- Mr. Robinson's "English
+    Flower-Garden" -- Mr. Nicholson's "Dictionary of
+    Gardening" -- One main idea desirable -- Pictorial
+    treatment -- Training in fine art -- Adapting from
+    Nature -- Study of colour -- Ignorant use of the word
+    "artistic."
+
+  CHAPTER XVI
+
+    THE FLOWER-BORDER AND PERGOLA                              200-215
+
+    The flower-border -- The wall and its occupants --
+    _Choisya ternata_ -- Nandina -- Canon Ellacombe's
+    garden -- Treatment of colour-masses -- Arrangement of
+    plants in the border -- Dahlias and Cannas -- Covering
+    bare places -- The Pergola -- How made -- Suitable
+    climbers -- Arbours of trained Planes -- Garden
+    houses.
+
+  CHAPTER XVII
+
+    THE PRIMROSE GARDEN                                        216-220
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII
+
+    COLOURS OF FLOWERS                                         221-228
+
+  CHAPTER XIX
+
+    THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN                                   229-240
+
+  CHAPTER XX
+
+    THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS                                  241-248
+
+  CHAPTER XXI
+
+    NOVELTY AND VARIETY                                        249-255
+
+  CHAPTER XXII
+
+    WEEDS AND PESTS                                            256-262
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII
+
+    THE BEDDING FASHION AND ITS INFLUENCE                      263-270
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV
+
+    MASTERS AND MEN                                            271-279
+
+    INDEX                                                          280
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    FRONTISPIECE                                          _face title_
+
+    A WILD JUNIPER                                   _face page_    19
+
+    SCOTCH FIRS THROWN ON TO FROZEN WATER BY SNOWSTORM    "         27
+
+    OLD JUNIPER, SHOWING FORMER INJURIES                  "         29
+
+    JUNIPER, LATELY WRECKED BY SNOWSTORM                  "         29
+
+    GARDEN DOOR-WAY WREATHED WITH CLEMATIS GRAVEOLENS     "         39
+
+    COTTAGE PORCH WREATHED WITH THE DOUBLE WHITE ROSE
+    (_R. alba_)                                           "         39
+
+    WILD HOP, ENTWINING WORMWOOD AND COW-PARSNIP          "         43
+
+    DAFFODILS IN THE COPSE                                "         48
+
+    MAGNOLIA STELLATA                                     "         50
+
+    DAFFODILS AMONG JUNIPERS WHERE GARDEN JOINS COPSE     "         51
+
+    TIARELLA CORDIFOLIA                                   "         53
+
+    HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY. (_See page 105_)              "         53
+
+    TULIPA RETROFLEXA                                     "         55
+
+    LATE SINGLE TULIPS, BREEDERS AND BYBLOEMEN            "         55
+
+    TRILLIUM IN THE WILD GARDEN                           "         61
+
+    RHODODENDRONS WHERE THE COPSE AND GARDEN MEET         "         65
+
+    GRASS WALKS THROUGH THE COPSE                         "         66
+
+    RHODODENDRONS AT THE EDGE OF THE COPSE                "         68
+
+    SOUTH SIDE OF DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA
+    AND CHOISYA                                           "         72
+
+    NORTH SIDE OF THE SAME DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS
+    MONTANA AND GUELDER-ROSE                              "         72
+
+    FREE CLUSTER-ROSE AS STANDARD IN A COTTAGE GARDEN     "         77
+
+    DOUBLE WHITE SCOTCH BRIAR                             "         81
+
+    PART OF A BUSH OF ROSA POLYANTHA                      "         82
+
+    GARLAND-ROSE SHOWING NATURAL WAY OF GROWTH            "         82
+
+    LILAC MARIE LEGRAYE (_See page 23_)                   "         84
+
+    FLOWERING ELDER AND PATH FROM GARDEN TO COPSE         "         84
+
+    THE GIANT LILY                                        "         96
+
+    CISTUS FLORENTINUS                                    "        101
+
+    THE GREAT ASPHODEL                                    "        101
+
+    LAVENDER HEDGE AND STEPS TO THE LOFT                  "        105
+
+    HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY                                "        105
+
+    SOLOMON'S SEAL IN SPRING, IN THE UPPER PART
+    OF THE FERN-WALK                                      "        107
+
+    THE FERN-WALK IN AUGUST                               "        107
+
+    JACK (_See page 79_)                                  "        117
+
+    THE "OLD WALL"                                        "        117
+
+    ERINUS ALPINUS, CLOTHING STEPS IN ROCK-WALL           "        121
+
+    BORDERS OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES                         "        126
+
+    PENS FOR STORING DEAD LEAVES                          "        150
+
+    CAREFUL WILD-GARDENING--WHITE FOXGLOVES AT
+    THE EDGE OF THE FIR WOOD. (_See page 270_)            "        150
+
+    HOLLY STEMS IN AN OLD HEDGE-ROW                       "        153
+
+    WILD JUNIPERS                                         "        154
+
+    WILD JUNIPERS                                         "        156
+
+    THE WOODMAN                                           "        158
+
+    GRUBBING A TREE-STUMP                                 "        161
+
+    FELLING AND GRUBBING TOOLS (_See page 150_)           "        161
+
+    HOOP-MAKING IN THE WOODS                              "        167
+
+    HOOP-SHAVING                                          "        169
+
+    SHED-ROOF, THATCHED WITH HOOP-CHIP                    "        169
+
+    GARLAND-ROSE WREATHING THE END OF A TERRACE WALL      "        178
+
+    A ROADSIDE COTTAGE GARDEN                             "        185
+
+    A FLOWER-BORDER IN JUNE                               "        200
+
+    PATHWAY ACROSS THE SOUTH BORDER IN JULY               "        202
+
+    OUTSIDE VIEW OF THE BRICK PERGOLA SHOWN
+    AT PAGE 214, AFTER SIX YEARS' GROWTH                  "        202
+
+    END OF FLOWER-BORDER AND ENTRANCE OF PERGOLA          "        210
+
+    SOUTH BORDER DOOR AND YUCCAS IN AUGUST                "        210
+
+    STONE-BUILT PERGOLA WITH WROUGHT OAK BEAMS            "        214
+
+    PERGOLA WITH BRICK PIERS AND BEAMS OF ROUGH OAK       "        214
+
+    EVENING IN THE PRIMROSE GARDEN                        "        217
+
+    TALL SNAPDRAGONS GROWING IN A DRY WALL                "        251
+
+    MULLEINS GROWING IN THE FACE OF DRY WALL
+    (_See "Old Wall," page 116_)                          "        251
+
+    GERANIUMS IN NEAPOLITAN POTS                          "        267
+
+    SPACE IN STEP AND TANK-GARDEN FOR LILIES,
+    CANNAS, AND GERANIUMS                                 "        268
+
+    HYDRANGEAS IN TUBS, IN A PART OF THE SAME GARDEN      "        268
+
+    MULLEIN (VERBASCUM PHLOMOIDES) AT THE EDGE
+    OF THE FIR WOOD                                       "        270
+
+    A GRASS PATH IN THE COPSE                             "        270
+
+
+
+
+WOOD AND GARDEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCTORY
+
+
+There are already many and excellent books about gardening; but the love
+of a garden, already so deeply implanted in the English heart, is so
+rapidly growing, that no excuse is needed for putting forth another.
+
+I lay no claim either to literary ability, or to botanical knowledge, or
+even to knowing the best practical methods of cultivation; but I have
+lived among outdoor flowers for many years, and have not spared myself
+in the way of actual labour, and have come to be on closely intimate and
+friendly terms with a great many growing things, and have acquired
+certain instincts which, though not clearly defined, are of the nature
+of useful knowledge.
+
+But the lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others,
+is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives. I
+rejoice when I see any one, and especially children, inquiring about
+flowers, and wanting gardens of their own, and carefully working in
+them. For the love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies, but
+always grows and grows to an enduring and ever-increasing source of
+happiness.
+
+If in the following chapters I have laid special stress upon gardening
+for beautiful effect, it is because it is the way of gardening that I
+love best, and understand most of, and that seems to me capable of
+giving the greatest amount of pleasure. I am strongly for treating
+garden and wooded ground in a pictorial way, mainly with large effects,
+and in the second place with lesser beautiful incidents, and for so
+arranging plants and trees and grassy spaces that they look happy and at
+home, and make no parade of conscious effort. I try for beauty and
+harmony everywhere, and especially for harmony of colour. A garden so
+treated gives the delightful feeling of repose, and refreshment, and
+purest enjoyment of beauty, that seems to my understanding to be the
+best fulfilment of its purpose; while to the diligent worker its
+happiness is like the offering of a constant hymn of praise. For I hold
+that the best purpose of a garden is to give delight and to give
+refreshment of mind, to soothe, to refine, and to lift up the heart in a
+spirit of praise and thankfulness. It is certain that those who practise
+gardening in the best ways find it to be so.
+
+But the scope of practical gardening covers a range of horticultural
+practice wide enough to give play to every variety of human taste. Some
+find their greatest pleasure in collecting as large a number as possible
+of all sorts of plants from all sources, others in collecting them
+themselves in their foreign homes, others in making rock-gardens, or
+ferneries, or peat-gardens, or bog-gardens, or gardens for conifers or
+for flowering shrubs, or special gardens of plants and trees with
+variegated or coloured leaves, or in the cultivation of some particular
+race or family of plants. Others may best like wide lawns with large
+trees, or wild gardening, or a quite formal garden, with trim hedge and
+walk, and terrace, and brilliant parterre, or a combination of several
+ways of gardening. And all are right and reasonable and enjoyable to
+their owners, and in some way or degree helpful to others.
+
+The way that seems to me most desirable is again different, and I have
+made an attempt to describe it in some of its aspects. But I have
+learned much, and am always learning, from other people's gardens, and
+the lesson I have learned most thoroughly is, never to say "I
+know"--there is so infinitely much to learn, and the conditions of
+different gardens vary so greatly, even when soil and situation appear
+to be alike and they are in the same district. Nature is such a subtle
+chemist that one never knows what she is about, or what surprises she
+may have in store for us.
+
+Often one sees in the gardening papers discussions about the treatment
+of some particular plant. One man writes to say it can only be done one
+way, another to say it can only be done quite some other way, and the
+discussion waxes hot and almost angry, and the puzzled reader, perhaps
+as yet young in gardening, cannot tell what to make of it. And yet the
+two writers are both able gardeners, and both absolutely trustworthy,
+only they should have said, "In my experience _in this place_ such a
+plant can only be done in such a way." Even plants of the same family
+will not do equally well in the same garden. Every practical gardener
+knows this in the case of strawberries and potatoes; he has to find out
+which kinds will do in his garden; the experience of his friend in the
+next county is probably of no use whatever.
+
+I have learnt much from the little cottage gardens that help to make our
+English waysides the prettiest in the temperate world. One can hardly go
+into the smallest cottage garden without learning or observing something
+new. It may be some two plants growing beautifully together by some
+happy chance, or a pretty mixed tangle of creepers, or something that
+one always thought must have a south wall doing better on an east one.
+But eye and brain must be alert to receive the impression and studious
+to store it, to add to the hoard of experience. And it is important to
+train oneself to have a good flower-eye; to be able to see at a glance
+what flowers are good and which are unworthy, and why, and to keep an
+open mind about it; not to be swayed by the petty tyrannies of the
+"florist" or show judge; for, though some part of his judgment may be
+sound, he is himself a slave to rules, and must go by points which are
+defined arbitrarily and rigidly, and have reference mainly to the
+show-table, leaving out of account, as if unworthy of consideration,
+such matters as gardens and garden beauty, and human delight, and
+sunshine, and varying lights of morning and evening and noonday. But
+many, both nurserymen and private people, devote themselves to growing
+and improving the best classes of hardy flowers, and we can hardly offer
+them too much grateful praise, or do them too much honour. For what
+would our gardens be without the Roses, Paeonies, and Gladiolus of
+France, and the Tulips and Hyacinths of Holland, to say nothing of the
+hosts of good things raised by our home growers, and of the enterprise
+of the great firms whose agents are always searching the world for
+garden treasures?
+
+Let no one be discouraged by the thought of how much there is to learn.
+Looking back upon nearly thirty years of gardening (the earlier part of
+it in groping ignorance with scant means of help), I can remember no
+part of it that was not full of pleasure and encouragement. For the
+first steps are steps into a delightful Unknown, the first successes are
+victories all the happier for being scarcely expected, and with the
+growing knowledge comes the widening outlook, and the comforting sense
+of an ever-increasing gain of critical appreciation. Each new step
+becomes a little surer, and each new grasp a little firmer, till, little
+by little, comes the power of intelligent combination, the nearest
+thing we can know to the mighty force of creation.
+
+And a garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful
+watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all, it teaches
+entire trust. "Paul planteth and Apollos watereth, but God giveth the
+increase." The good gardener knows with absolute certainty that if he
+does his part, if he gives the labour, the love, and every aid that his
+knowledge of his craft, experience of the conditions of his place, and
+exercise of his personal wit can work together to suggest, that so
+surely as he does this diligently and faithfully, so surely will God
+give the increase. Then with the honestly-earned success comes the
+consciousness of encouragement to renewed effort, and, as it were, an
+echo of the gracious words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JANUARY
+
+Beauty of woodland in winter -- The nut-walk -- Thinning the overgrowth
+-- A nut nursery -- _Iris stylosa_ -- Its culture -- Its home in Algeria
+-- Discovery of the white variety -- Flowers and branches for indoor
+decoration.
+
+
+A hard frost is upon us. The thermometer registered eighteen degrees
+last night, and though there was only one frosty night next before it,
+the ground is hard frozen. Till now a press of other work has stood in
+the way of preparing protecting stuff for tender shrubs, but now I go up
+into the copse with a man and chopping tools to cut out some of the
+Scotch fir that are beginning to crowd each other.
+
+How endlessly beautiful is woodland in winter! To-day there is a thin
+mist; just enough to make a background of tender blue mystery three
+hundred yards away, and to show any defect in the grouping of near
+trees. No day could be better for deciding which trees are to come down;
+there is not too much at a time within sight; just one good picture-full
+and no more. On a clear day the eye and mind are distracted by seeing
+away into too many planes, and it is much more difficult to decide what
+is desirable in the way of broad treatment of nearer objects.
+
+The ground has a warm carpet of pale rusty fern; tree-stem and branch
+and twig show tender colour-harmonies of grey bark and silver-grey
+lichen, only varied by the warm feathery masses of birch spray. Now the
+splendid richness of the common holly is more than ever impressive, with
+its solid masses of full, deep colour, and its wholesome look of perfect
+health and vigour. Sombrely cheerful, if one may use such a mixture of
+terms; sombre by reason of the extreme depth of tone, and yet cheerful
+from the look of glad life, and from the assurance of warm shelter and
+protecting comfort to bird and beast and neighbouring vegetation. The
+picture is made complete by the slender shafts of the silver-barked
+birches, with their half-weeping heads of delicate, warm-coloured spray.
+Has any tree so graceful a way of throwing up its stems as the birch?
+They seem to leap and spring into the air, often leaning and curving
+upward from the very root, sometimes in forms that would be almost
+grotesque were it not for the never-failing rightness of free-swinging
+poise and perfect balance. The tints of the stem give a precious lesson
+in colour. The white of the bark is here silvery-white and there
+milk-white, and sometimes shows the faintest tinge of rosy flush. Where
+the bark has not yet peeled, the stem is clouded and banded with
+delicate grey, and with the silver-green of lichen. For about two feet
+upward from the ground, in the case of young trees of about seven to
+nine inches diameter, the bark is dark in colour, and lies in thick and
+extremely rugged upright ridges, contrasting strongly with the smooth
+white skin above. Where the two join, the smooth bark is parted in
+upright slashes, through which the dark, rough bark seems to swell up,
+reminding one forcibly of some of the old fifteenth-century German
+costumes, where a dark velvet is arranged to rise in crumpled folds
+through slashings in white satin. In the stems of older birches the
+rough bark rises much higher up the trunk and becomes clothed with
+delicate grey-green lichen.
+
+The nut-walk was planted twelve years ago. There are two rows each side,
+one row four feet behind the other, and the nuts are ten feet apart in
+the rows. They are planted zigzag, those in the back rows showing
+between the front ones. As the two inner rows are thirteen feet apart
+measuring across the path, it leaves a shady border on each side, with
+deeper bays between the nearer trees. Lent Hellebores fill one border
+from end to end; the other is planted with the Corsican and the native
+kinds, so that throughout February and March there is a complete bit of
+garden of one kind of plant in full beauty of flower and foliage.
+
+The nut-trees have grown into such thick clumps that now there must be a
+vigorous thinning. Each stool has from eight to twelve main stems, the
+largest of them nearly two inches thick. Some shoot almost upright,
+but two or three in each stool spread outward, with quite a different
+habit of growth, branching about in an angular fashion. These are the
+oldest and thickest. There are also a number of straight suckers one and
+two years old. Now when I look at some fine old nut alley, with the tops
+arching and meeting overhead, as I hope mine will do in a few years, I
+see that the trees have only a few stems, usually from three to five at
+the most, and I judge that now is the time to thin mine to about the
+right number, so that the strength and growing power may be thrown into
+these, and not allowed to dilute and waste itself in growing extra
+faggoting. The first to be cut away are the old crooked stems. They grow
+nearly horizontally and are all elbows, and often so tightly locked into
+the straighter rods that they have to be chopped to pieces before they
+can be pulled out. When these are gone it is easier to get at the other
+stems, though they are often so close together at the base that it is
+difficult to chop or saw them out without hurting the bark of the ones
+to be left. All the young suckers are cut away. They are of straight,
+clean growth, and we prize them as the best possible sticks for
+Chrysanthemums and potted Lilies.
+
+After this bold thinning, instead of dense thickety bushes we have a few
+strong, well-branched rods to each stool. At first the nut-walk looks
+wofully naked, and for the time its pictorial value is certainly
+lessened; but it has to be done, and when summer side-twigs have grown
+and leafed, it will be fairly well clothed, and meanwhile the Hellebores
+will be the better for the thinner shade.
+
+The nut-catkins are already an inch long, but are tightly closed, and
+there is no sign as yet of the bright crimson little sea-anemones that
+will appear next month and will duly grow into nut-bearing twigs. Round
+the edges of the base of the stools are here and there little branching
+suckers. These are the ones to look out for, to pull off and grow into
+young trees. A firm grasp and a sharp tug brings them up with a fine
+supply of good fibrous root. After two years in the nursery they are
+just right to plant out.
+
+The trees in the nut-walk were grown in this way fourteen years ago,
+from small suckers pulled off plants that came originally from the
+interesting cob-nut nursery at Calcot, near Reading.
+
+I shall never forget a visit to that nursery some six-and-twenty years
+ago. It was walled all round, and a deep-sounding bell had to be rung
+many times before any one came to open the gate; but at last it was
+opened by a fine, strongly-built, sunburnt woman of the type of the good
+working farmer's wife, that I remember as a child. She was the
+forewoman, who worked the nursery with surprisingly few hands--only
+three men, if I remember rightly--but she looked as if she could do the
+work of "all two men" herself. One of the specialties of the place was a
+fine breed of mastiffs; another was an old Black Hamburg vine, that
+rambled and clambered in and out of some very old greenhouses, and was
+wonderfully productive. There were alleys of nuts in all directions, and
+large spreading patches of palest yellow Daffodils--the double
+_Narcissus cernuus_, now so scarce and difficult to grow. Had I then
+known how precious a thing was there in fair abundance, I should not
+have been contented with the modest dozen that I asked for. It was a
+most pleasant garden to wander in, especially with the old Mr. Webb who
+presently appeared. He was dressed in black clothes of an old-looking
+cut--a Quaker, I believe. Never shall I forget an apple-tart he invited
+me to try as a proof of the merit of the "Wellington" apple. It was not
+only good, but beautiful; the cooked apple looking rosy and transparent,
+and most inviting. He told me he was an ardent preacher of total
+abstinence, and took me to a grassy, shady place among the nuts, where
+there was an upright stone slab, like a tombstone, with the inscription:
+
+    TO ALCOHOL.
+
+He had dug a grave, and poured into it a quantity of wine and beer and
+spirits, and placed the stone as a memorial of his abhorrence of drink.
+The whole thing remains in my mind like a picture--the shady groves of
+old nuts, in tenderest early leaf, the pale Daffodils, the mighty
+chained mastiffs with bloodshot eyes and murderous fangs, the brawny,
+wholesome forewoman, and the trim old gentleman in black. It was the
+only nursery I ever saw where one would expect to see fairies on a
+summer's night.
+
+I never tire of admiring and praising _Iris stylosa_, which has proved
+itself such a good plant for English gardens; at any rate, for those in
+our southern counties. Lovely in form and colour, sweetly-scented and
+with admirable foliage, it has in addition to these merits the unusual
+one of a blooming season of six months' duration. The first flowers come
+with the earliest days of November, and its season ends with a rush of
+bloom in the first half of April. Then is the time to take up old tufts
+and part them, and plant afresh; the old roots will have dried up into
+brown wires, and the new will be pushing. It thrives in rather poor
+soil, and seems to bloom all the better for having its root-run invaded
+by some stronger plant. When I first planted a quantity I had brought
+from its native place, I made the mistake of putting it in a
+well-prepared border. At first I was delighted to see how well it
+flourished, but as it gave me only thick masses of leaves a yard long,
+and no flowers, it was clear that it wanted to be less well fed. After
+changing it to poor soil, at the foot of a sunny wall close to a strong
+clump of Alstroemeria, I was rewarded with a good crop of flowers; and
+the more the Alstroemeria grew into it on one side and _Plumbago
+Larpenti_ on the other, the more freely the brave little Iris flowered.
+The flower has no true stem; what serves as a stem, sometimes a foot
+long, is the elongated style, so that the seed-pod has to be looked for
+deep down at the base of the tufts of leaves, and almost under ground.
+The specific name, _stylosa_, is so clearly descriptive, that one
+regrets that the longer, and certainly uglier, _unguicularis_ should be
+preferred by botanists.
+
+What a delight it was to see it for the first time in its home in the
+hilly wastes, a mile or two inland from the town of Algiers! Another
+lovely blue Iris was there too, _I. alata_ or _scorpioides_, growing
+under exactly the same conditions; but this is a plant unwilling to be
+acclimatised in England. What a paradise it was for flower-rambles,
+among the giant Fennels and the tiny orange Marigolds, and the immense
+bulbs of _Scilla maritima_ standing almost out of the ground, and the
+many lovely Bee-orchises and the fairy-like _Narcissus serotinus_, and
+the groves of Prickly Pear wreathed and festooned with the graceful
+tufts of bell-shaped flower and polished leaves of _Clematis cirrhosa_!
+
+It was in the days when there were only a few English residents, but
+among them was the Rev. Edwyn Arkwright, who by his happy discovery of a
+white-flowered _Iris stylosa_, the only one that has been found wild,
+has enriched our gardens with a most lovely variety of this excellent
+plant. I am glad to be able to quote his own words:--
+
+"The finding of the white _Iris stylosa_ belongs to the happy old times
+twenty-five years ago, when there were no social duties and no
+vineyards[1] in Algiers. My two sisters and I bought three horses, and
+rode wild every day in the scrub of Myrtle, Cistus, Dwarf Oak, &c. It
+was about five miles from the town, on what is called the 'Sahel,' that
+the one plant grew that I was told botanists knew ought to exist, but
+with all their searching had never found. I am thankful that I dug it up
+instead of picking it, only knowing that it was a pretty flower. Then
+after a year or two Durando saw it, and took off his hat to it, and told
+me what a treasure it was, and proceeded to send off little bits to his
+friends; and among them all, Ware of Tottenham managed to be beforehand,
+and took a first-class certificate for it. It is odd that there should
+never have been another plant found, for there never was such a
+free-growing and multiplying plant. My sister in Herefordshire has had
+over fifty blooms this winter; but we count it by thousands, and it is
+_the_ feature in all decorations in every English house in Algiers."
+
+[1] The planting of large vineyards, in some cases of private
+enterprise, had not proved a financial success.
+
+Throughout January, and indeed from the middle of December, is the time
+when outdoor flowers for cutting and house decoration are most scarce;
+and yet there are Christmas Roses and yellow Jasmine and Laurustinus,
+and in all open weather _Iris stylosa_ and Czar Violets. A very few
+flowers can be made to look well if cleverly arranged with plenty of
+good foliage; and even when a hard and long frost spoils the few
+blooms that would otherwise be available, leafy branches alone are
+beautiful in rooms. But, as in all matters that have to do with
+decoration, everything depends on a right choice of material and the
+exercise of taste in disposing it. Red-tinted Berberis always looks well
+alone, if three or four branches are boldly cut from two to three feet
+long. Branches of the spotted Aucuba do very well by themselves, and are
+specially beautiful in blue china; the larger the leaves and the bolder
+the markings, the better. Where there is an old Exmouth Magnolia that
+can spare some small branches, nothing makes a nobler room-ornament. The
+long arching sprays of Alexandrian Laurel do well with green or
+variegated Box, and will live in a room for several weeks. Among useful
+winter leaves of smaller growth, those of _Epimedium pinnatum_ have a
+fine red colour and delicate veining, and I find them very useful for
+grouping with greenhouse flowers of delicate texture. _Gaultheria
+Shallon_ is at its best in winter, and gives valuable branches and twigs
+for cutting; and much to be prized are sprays of the Japan Privet, with
+its tough, highly-polished leaves, so much like those of the orange.
+There is a variegated Eurybia, small branches of which are excellent;
+and always useful are the gold and silver Hollies.
+
+There is a little plant, _Ophiopogon spicatum_, that I grow in rather
+large quantity for winter cutting, the leaves being at their best in the
+winter months. They are sword-shaped and of a lively green colour, and
+are arranged in flat sheaves after the manner of a flag-Iris. I pull up
+a whole plant at a time--a two-year-old plant is a spreading tuft of the
+little sheaves--and wash it and cut away the groups of leaves just at
+the root, so that they are held together by the root-stock. They last
+long in water, and are beautiful with Roman Hyacinths or Freesias or
+_Iris stylosa_ and many other flowers. The leaves of Megaseas,
+especially those of the _cordifolia_ section, colour grandly in winter,
+and look fine in a large bowl with the largest blooms of Christmas
+Roses, or with forced Hyacinths. Much useful material can be found among
+Ivies, both of the wild and garden kinds. When they are well established
+they generally throw out rather woody front shoots; these are the ones
+to look out for, as they stand out with a certain degree of stiffness
+that makes them easier to arrange than weaker trailing pieces.
+
+I do not much care for dried flowers--the bulrush and pampas-grass
+decoration has been so much overdone, that it has become wearisome--but
+I make an exception in favour of the flower of _Eulalia japonica_, and
+always give it a place. It does not come to its full beauty out of
+doors; it only finishes its growth late in October, and therefore does
+not have time to dry and expand. I grew it for many years before finding
+out that the closed and rather draggled-looking heads would open
+perfectly in a warm room. The uppermost leaf often confines the flower,
+and should be taken off to release it; the flower does not seem to
+mature quite enough to come free of itself. Bold masses of Helichrysum
+certainly give some brightness to a room during the darkest weeks of
+winter, though the brightest yellow is the only one I much care to have;
+there is a look of faded tinsel about the other colourings. I much prize
+large bunches of the native Iris berries, and grow it largely for winter
+room-ornament.
+
+Among the many valuable suggestions in Mrs. Earle's delightful book,
+"Pot-pourri from a Surrey Garden," is the use indoors of the smaller
+coloured gourds. As used by her they give a bright and cheerful look to
+a room that even flowers can not surpass.
+
+[Illustration: A WILD JUNIPER.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+FEBRUARY
+
+Distant promise of summer -- Ivy-berries -- Coloured leaves -- _Berberis
+Aquifolium_ -- Its many merits -- Thinning and pruning shrubs -- Lilacs
+-- Removing suckers -- Training _Clematis flammula_ -- Forms of trees --
+Juniper, a neglected native evergreen -- Effect of snow -- Power of
+recovery -- Beauty of colour -- Moss-grown stems.
+
+
+There is always in February some one day, at least, when one smells the
+yet distant, but surely coming, summer. Perhaps it is a warm, mossy
+scent that greets one when passing along the southern side of a
+hedge-bank; or it may be in some woodland opening, where the sun has
+coaxed out the pungent smell of the trailing ground Ivy, whose blue
+flowers will soon appear; but the day always comes, and with it the glad
+certainty that summer is nearing, and that the good things promised will
+never fail.
+
+How strangely little of positive green colour is to be seen in copse and
+woodland. Only the moss is really green. The next greenest thing is the
+northern sides of the trunks of beech and oak. Walking southward they
+are all green, but looking back they are silver-grey. The undergrowth is
+of brambles and sparse fronds of withered bracken; the bracken less
+beaten down than usual, for the winter has been without snow; only where
+the soil is deeper, and the fern has grown more tall and rank, it has
+fallen into thick, almost felted masses, and the stalks all lying one
+way make the heaps look like lumps of fallen thatch. The bramble
+leaves--last year's leaves, which are held all the winter--are of a
+dark, blackish-bronze colour, or nearly red where they have seen the
+sun. Age seems to give them a sort of hard surface and enough of a
+polish to reflect the sky; the young leaves that will come next month
+are almost woolly at first. Grassy tufts show only bleached bents, so
+tightly matted that one wonders how the delicate young blades will be
+able to spear through. Ivy-berries, hanging in thick clusters, are still
+in beauty; they are so heavy that they weigh down the branches. There is
+a peculiar beauty in the form and veining of the plain-shaped leaves
+belonging to the mature or flowering state that the plant reaches when
+it can no longer climb, whether on a wall six feet high or on the
+battlements of a castle. Cuttings grown from such portions retain this
+habit, and form densely-flowering bushes of compact shape.
+
+Beautiful colouring is now to be seen in many of the plants whose leaves
+do not die down in winter. Foremost amongst these is the Foam-flower
+(_Tiarella cordifolia_). Its leaves, now lying on the ground, show
+bright colouring, inclining to scarlet, crimson, and orange. _Tellima_,
+its near relation, is also well coloured. _Galax aphylla_, with its
+polished leaves of hard texture, and stalks almost as stiff as wire, is
+nearly as bright; and many of the Megaseas are of a fine bronze red, the
+ones that colour best being the varieties of the well-known _M.
+crassifolia_ and _M. cordifolia_. Among shrubs, some of the nearly
+allied genera, popularly classed under the name Andromeda, are beautiful
+in reddish colour passing into green, in some of the leaves by tender
+gradation, and in others by bold splashing. _Berberis Aquifolium_ begins
+to colour after the first frosts; though some plants remain green, the
+greater number take on some rich tinting of red or purple, and
+occasionally in poor soil and in full sun a bright red that may almost
+be called scarlet.
+
+What a precious thing this fine old Berberis is! What should we do in
+winter without its vigorous masses of grand foliage in garden and
+shrubbery, to say nothing of its use indoors? Frequent as it is in
+gardens, it is seldom used as well or thoughtfully as it deserves. There
+are many places where, between garden and wood, a well-considered
+planting of Berberis, combined with two or three other things of larger
+stature, such as the fruiting Barberry, and Whitethorn and Holly, would
+make a very enjoyable piece of shrub wild-gardening. When one reflects
+that _Berberis Aquifolium_ is individually one of the handsomest of
+small shrubs, that it is at its very best in mid-winter, that every leaf
+is a marvel of beautiful drawing and construction, and that its ruddy
+winter colouring is a joy to see, enhanced as it is by the glistening
+brightness of the leaf-surface; and further, when one remembers that in
+spring the whole picture changes--that the polished leaves are green
+again, and the bushes are full of tufted masses of brightest yellow
+bloom, and fuller of bee-music than any other plant then in flower; and
+that even then it has another season of beauty yet to come, when in the
+days of middle summer it is heavily loaded with the thick-clustered
+masses of berries, covered with a brighter and bluer bloom than almost
+any other fruit can show,--when one thinks of all this brought together
+in one plant, it seems but right that we should spare no pains to use it
+well. It is the only hardy shrub I can think of that is in one or other
+of its varied forms of beauty throughout the year. It is never leafless
+or untidy; it never looks mangy like an Ilex in April, or moulting like
+a Holly in May, or patchy and unfinished like Yew and Box and many other
+evergreens when their young leafy shoots are sprouting.
+
+We have been thinning the shrubs in one of the rather large clumps next
+to the lawn, taking the older wood in each clump right out from the
+bottom and letting more light and air into the middle. Weigelas grow
+fast and very thick. Quite two-thirds have been cut out of each bush of
+Weigela, Philadelphus, and Ribes, and a good bit out of Ceanothus,
+"Gloire de Versailles," my favourite of its kind, and all the oldest
+wood from _Viburnum plicatus_. The stuff cut out makes quite a
+respectable lot of faggoting. How extremely dense and hard is the wood
+of Philadelphus! as close-grained as Box, and almost as hard as the
+bright yellow wood of Berberis.
+
+Some of the Lilacs have a good many suckers from the root, as well as on
+the lower part of the stem. These must all come away, and then the trees
+will have a good dressing of manure. They are greedy feeders, and want
+it badly in our light soil, and surely no flowering shrub more truly
+deserves it. The Lilacs I have are some of the beautiful kinds raised in
+France, for which we can never be thankful enough to our good neighbours
+across the Channel. The white variety, "Marie Legraye," always remains
+my favourite. Some are larger and whiter, and have the trusses more
+evenly and closely filled, but this beautiful Marie fills one with a
+satisfying conviction as of something that is just right, that has
+arrived at the point of just the best and most lovable kind of beauty,
+and has been wisely content to stay there, not attempting to pass beyond
+and excel itself. Its beauty is modest and reserved, and temperate and
+full of refinement. The colour has a deliciously-tender warmth of white,
+and as the truss is not over-full, there is room for a delicate play of
+warm half-light within its recesses. Among the many beautiful coloured
+Lilacs, I am fond of Lucie Baltet and Princesse Marie. There may be
+better flowers from the ordinary florist point of view, but these have
+the charm that is a good garden flower's most precious quality. I do not
+like the cold, heavy-coloured ones of the bluish-slaty kinds. No shrub
+is hardier than the Lilac; I believe they flourish even within the
+Arctic Circle. It is very nearly allied to Privet; so nearly, that the
+oval-leaved Privet is commonly used as a stock. Standard trees flower
+much better than bushes; in this form all the strength seems to go
+directly to the flowering boughs. No shrub is more persistent in
+throwing up suckers from the root and from the lower part of the stem,
+but in bush trees as well as in standards they should be carefully
+removed every year. In the case of bushes, three or four main stems will
+be enough to leave. When taking away suckers of any kind whatever, it is
+much better to tear them out than to cut them off. A cut, however close,
+leaves a base from which they may always spring again, but if pulled or
+wrenched out they bring away with them the swollen base that, if left
+in, would be a likely source of future trouble.
+
+Before the end of February we must be sure to prune and train any plants
+there may be of _Clematis flammula_. Its growth is so rapid when once it
+begins, that if it is overlooked it soon grows into a tangled mass of
+succulent weak young stuff, quite unmanageable two months hence, when it
+will be hanging about in helpless masses, dead and living together. If
+it is left till then, one can only engirdle the whole thing with a soft
+tarred rope and sling it up somehow or anyhow. But if taken now, when
+the young growths are just showing at the joints, the last year's mass
+can be untangled, the dead and the over-much cut out, and the best
+pieces trained in. In gardening, the interests of the moment are so
+engrossing that one is often tempted to forget the future; but it is
+well to remember that this lovely and tenderly-scented Clematis will be
+one of the chief beauties of September, and well deserves a little
+timely care.
+
+In summer-time one never really knows how beautiful are the forms of the
+deciduous trees. It is only in winter, when they are bare of leaves,
+that one can fully enjoy their splendid structure and design, their
+admirable qualities of duly apportioned strength and grace of poise, and
+the way the spread of the many-branched head has its equivalent in the
+wide-reaching ground-grasp of the root. And it is interesting to see
+how, in the many different kinds of tree, the same laws are always in
+force, and the same results occur, and yet by the employment of what
+varied means. For nothing in the growth of trees can be much more unlike
+than the habit of the oak and that of the weeping willow, though the
+unlikeness only comes from the different adjustment of the same sources
+of power and the same weights, just as in the movement of wind-blown
+leaves some flutter and some undulate, while others turn over and back
+again. Old apple-trees are specially noticeable for their beauty in
+winter, when their extremely graceful shape, less visible when in
+loveliness of spring bloom or in rich bounty of autumn fruit, is seen to
+fullest advantage.
+
+Few in number are our native evergreens, and for that reason all the
+more precious. One of them, the common Juniper, is one of the best of
+shrubs either for garden or wild ground, and yet, strangely enough, it
+is so little appreciated that it is scarcely to be had in nurseries.
+Chinese Junipers, North American Junipers, Junipers from Spain and
+Greece, from Nepaul and Siberia, may be had, but the best Juniper of all
+is very rarely grown. Were it a common tree one could see a sort of
+reason (to some minds) for overlooking it, but though it is fairly
+abundant on a few hill-sides in the southern counties, it is by no means
+widely distributed throughout the country. Even this reason would not be
+consistent with common practice, for the Holly is abundant throughout
+England, and yet is to be had by the thousand in every nursery. Be the
+reason what it may, the common Juniper is one of the most desirable of
+evergreens, and is most undeservedly neglected. Even our botanists fail
+to do it justice, for Bentham describes it as a low shrub growing two
+feet, three feet, or four feet high. I quote from memory only; these may
+not be the words, but this is the sense of his description. He had
+evidently seen it on the chalk downs only, where such a portrait of it
+is exactly right. But in our sheltered uplands, in sandy soil, it is
+a small tree of noble aspect, twelve to twenty-eight feet high. In form
+it is extremely variable, for sometimes it shoots up on a single stem
+and looks like an Italian Cypress or like the upright Chinese Juniper,
+while at other times it will have two or more tall spires and a dense
+surrounding mass of lower growth, while in other cases it will be like a
+quantity of young trees growing close together, and yet the trees in all
+these varied forms may be nearly of an age.
+
+[Illustration: SCOTCH FIRS THROWN ON TO FROZEN WATER BY SNOWSTORM.]
+
+The action of snow is the reason of this unlikeness of habit. If, when
+young, the tree happens to have one main stem strong enough to shoot up
+alone, and if at the same time there come a sequence of winters without
+much snow, there will be the tall, straight, cypress-like tree. But if,
+as is more commonly the case, the growth is divided into a number of
+stems of nearly equal size, sooner or later they are sure to be laid
+down by snow. Such a winter storm as that of the end of December 1886
+was especially disastrous to Junipers. Snow came on early in the evening
+in this district, when the thermometer was barely at freezing point and
+there was no wind. It hung on the trees in clogging masses, with a
+lowering temperature that was soon below freezing. The snow still
+falling loaded them more and more; then came the fatal wind, and all
+through that night we heard the breaking trees. When morning came there
+were eighteen inches of snow on the ground, and all the trees that
+could be seen, mostly Scotch fir, seemed to be completely wrecked. Some
+were entirely stripped of branches, and stood up bare, like
+scaffold-poles. Until the snow was gone or half gone, no idea could be
+formed of the amount of damage done to shrubs; all were borne down and
+buried under the white rounded masses. A great Holly on the edge of the
+lawn, nearly thirty feet high and as much in spread, whose head in
+summer is crowned with a great tangle of Honeysuckle, had that crowned
+head lying on the ground weighted down by the frozen mass. But when the
+snow was gone and all the damage could be seen, the Junipers looked
+worse than anything. What had lately been shapely groups were lying
+perfectly flat, the bare-stemmed, leafless portions of the inner part of
+the group showing, and looking like a faggot of dry brushwood, that,
+having been stood upright, had burst its band and fallen apart in all
+directions. Some, whose stems had weathered many snowy winters, now had
+them broken short off half-way up; while others escaped with bare life,
+but with the thick, strong stem broken down, the heavy head lying on the
+ground, and the stem wrenched open at the break, like a half-untwisted
+rope. The great wild Junipers were the pride of our stretch of heathy
+waste just beyond the garden, and the scene of desolation was truly
+piteous, for though many of them already bore the marks of former
+accidents, never within our memory had there been such complete and
+comprehensive destruction.
+
+[Illustration: OLD JUNIPER, SHOWING FORMER INJURIES.]
+
+[Illustration: JUNIPER, LATELY WRECKED BY SNOWSTORM.]
+
+But now, ten years later, so great is their power of recovery, that
+there are the same Junipers, and, except in the case of those actually
+broken off, looking as well as ever. For those with many stems that were
+laid down flat have risen at the tips, and each tip looks like a
+vigorous young ten-year-old tree. What was formerly a massive,
+bushy-shaped Juniper, some twelve feet to fifteen feet high, now covers
+a space thirty feet across, and looks like a thick group of
+closely-planted, healthy young ones. The half broken-down trees have
+also risen at the tips, and are full of renewed vigour. Indeed, this
+breaking down and splitting open seems to give them a new energy, for
+individual trees that I have known well, and observed to look old and
+over-worn, and to all appearance on the downward road of life, after
+being broken and laid down by snow, have some years later, shot up again
+with every evidence of vigorous young life. It would be more easily
+accounted for if the branch rooted where it touched the ground, as so
+many trees and bushes will do; but as far as I have been able to
+observe, the Juniper does not "layer" itself. I have often thought I had
+found a fine young one fit for transplanting, but on clearing away the
+moss and fern at the supposed root have found that it was only the tip
+of a laid-down branch of a tree perhaps twelve feet away. In the case of
+one of our trees, among a group of laid-down and grown-up branches, one
+old central trunk has survived. It is now so thick and strong, and has
+so little top, that it will be likely to stand till it falls from sheer
+old age. Close to it is another, whose main stem was broken down about
+five feet from the ground; now, what was the head rests on the earth
+nine feet away, and a circle of its outspread branches has become a
+wholesome group of young upright growths, while at the place where the
+stem broke, the half-opened wrench still shows as clearly as on the day
+it was done.
+
+Among the many merits of the Juniper, its tenderly mysterious beauty of
+colouring is by no means the least; a colouring as delicately subtle in
+its own way as that of cloud or mist, or haze in warm, wet woodland. It
+has very little of positive green; a suspicion of warm colour in the
+shadowy hollows, and a blue-grey bloom of the tenderest quality
+imaginable on the outer masses of foliage. Each tiny, blade-like leaf
+has a band of dead, palest bluish-green colour on the upper surface,
+edged with a narrow line of dark green slightly polished; the back of
+the leaf is of the same full, rather dark green, with slight polish; it
+looks as if the green back had been brought up over the edge of the leaf
+to make the dark edging on the upper surface. The stems of the twigs are
+of a warm, almost foxy colour, becoming darker and redder in the
+branches. The tips of the twigs curl over or hang out on all sides
+towards the light, and the "set" of the individual twigs is full of
+variety. This arrangement of mixed colouring and texture, and infinitely
+various position of the spiny little leaves, allows the eye to
+penetrate unconsciously a little way into the mass, so that one sees as
+much tender shadow as actual leaf-surface, and this is probably the
+cause of the wonderfully delicate and, so to speak, intangible quality
+of colouring. Then, again, where there is a hollow place in a bush, or
+group, showing a cluster of half-dead stems, at first one cannot tell
+what the colour is, till with half-shut eyes one becomes aware of a
+dusky and yet luminous purple-grey.
+
+The merits of the Juniper are not yet done with, for throughout the
+winter (the time of growth of moss and lichen) the rugged-barked old
+stems are clothed with loveliest pale-green growths of a silvery
+quality. Standing before it, and trying to put the colour into words,
+one repeats, again and again, pale-green silver--palest silvery green!
+Where the lichen is old and dead it is greyer; every now and then there
+is a touch of the orange kind, and a little of the branched stag-horn
+pattern so common on the heathy ground. Here and there, as the trunk or
+branch is increasing in girth, the silvery, lichen-clad, rough outer
+bark has parted, and shows the smooth, dark-red inner bark; the outer
+covering still clinging over the opening, and looking like grey ribands
+slightly interlaced. Many another kind of tree-stem is beautiful in its
+winter dress, but it is difficult to find any so full of varied beauty
+and interest as that of the Juniper; it is one of the yearly feasts that
+never fails to delight and satisfy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MARCH
+
+Flowering bulbs -- Dog-tooth Violet -- Rock-garden -- Variety of
+Rhododendron foliage -- A beautiful old kind -- Suckers on grafted
+plants -- Plants for filling up the beds -- Heaths -- Andromedas -- Lady
+Fern -- _Lilium auratum_ -- Pruning Roses -- Training and tying climbing
+plants -- Climbing and free-growing Roses -- The Vine the best
+wall-covering -- Other climbers -- Wild Clematis -- Wild Rose.
+
+
+In early March many and lovely are the flowering bulbs, and among them a
+wealth of blue, the more precious that it is the colour least frequent
+among flowers. The blue of _Scilla sibirica_, like all blues that have
+in them a suspicion of green, has a curiously penetrating quality; the
+blue of _Scilla bifolia_ does not attack the eye so smartly. _Chionodoxa
+sardensis_ is of a full and satisfying colour, that is enhanced by the
+small space of clear white throat. A bed of it shows very little
+variation in colour. _Chionodoxa Lucilliae_, on the other hand, varies
+greatly; one may pick out light and dark blue, and light and dark of
+almost lilac colour. The variety _C. gigantea_ is a fine plant. There
+are some pretty kinds of _Scilla bifolia_ that were raised by the Rev.
+J. G. Nelson of Aldborough, among them a tender flesh-colour and a good
+pink. _Leucojum vernum_, with its clear white flowers and polished
+dark-green leaves, is one of the gems of early March; and, flowering at
+the same time, no flower of the whole year can show a more splendid and
+sumptuous colour than the purple of _Iris reticulata_. Varieties have
+been raised, some larger, some nearer blue, and some reddish purple, but
+the type remains the best garden flower. _Iris stylosa_, in sheltered
+nooks open to the sun, when well established, gives flower from November
+till April, the strongest rush of bloom being about the third week in
+March. It is a precious plant in our southern counties, delicately
+scented, of a tender and yet full lilac-blue. The long ribbon-like
+leaves make handsome tufts, and the sheltered place it needs in our
+climate saves the flowers from the injury they receive on their native
+windy Algerian hills, where they are nearly always torn into tatters.
+
+What a charm there is about the common Dogtooth Violet; it is pretty
+everywhere, in borders, in the rock-garden, in all sorts of corners. But
+where it looks best with me is in a grassy place strewn with dead
+leaves, under young oaks, where the garden joins the copse. This is a
+part of the pleasure-ground that has been treated with some care, and
+has rewarded thought and labour with some success, so that it looks less
+as if it had been planned than as if it might have come naturally. At
+one point the lawn, trending gently upward, runs by grass paths into a
+rock-garden, planted mainly with dwarf shrubs. Here are Andromedas,
+Pernettyas, Gaultherias, and Alpine Rhododendron, and with them three
+favourites whose crushed leaves give a grateful fragrance, Sweet Gale,
+_Ledum palustre_, and _Rhododendron myrtifolium_. The rock part is
+unobtrusive; where the ground rises rather quickly are a couple of
+ridges made of large, long lumps of sandstone, half buried, and so laid
+as to give a look of natural stratification. Hardy Ferns are grateful
+for the coolness of their northern flanks, and Cyclamens are happy on
+the ledges. Beyond and above is the copse, or thin wood of young silver
+Birch and Holly, in summer clothed below with bracken, but now bristling
+with the bluish spears of Daffodils and the buds that will soon burst
+into bloom. The early Pyrenean Daffodil is already out, gleaming through
+the low-toned copse like lamps of pale yellow light. Where the rough
+path enters the birch copse is a cheerfully twinkling throng of the
+Dwarf Daffodil (_N. nanus_), looking quite at its best on its carpet of
+moss and fine grass and dead leaves. The light wind gives it a graceful,
+dancing movement, with an active spring about the upper part of the
+stalk. Some of the heavier trumpets not far off answer to the same wind
+with only a ponderous, leaden sort of movement.
+
+Farther along the garden joins the wood by a plantation of Rhododendrons
+and broad grassy paths, and farther still by a thicket of the
+free-growing Roses, some forming fountain-like clumps nine paces in
+diameter, and then again by masses of flowering shrubs, gradating by
+means of Sweetbriar, Water-elder, Dogwood, Medlar, and Thorn from garden
+to wild wood.
+
+Now that the Rhododendrons, planted nine years ago, have grown to a
+state and size of young maturity, it is interesting to observe how much
+they vary in foliage, and how clearly the leaves show the relative
+degree of relationship to their original parents, the wild mountain
+plants of Asia Minor and the United States. These, being two of the
+hardiest kinds, were the ones first chosen by hybridisers, and to these
+kinds we owe nearly all of the large numbers of beautiful garden
+Rhododendrons now in cultivation. The ones more nearly related to the
+wild _R. ponticum_ have long, narrow, shining dark-green leaves, while
+the varieties that incline more to the American _R. catawbiense_ have
+the leaves twice as broad, and almost rounded at the shoulder where they
+join the stalk; moreover, the surface of the leaf has a different
+texture, less polished, and showing a grain like morocco leather. The
+colour also is a lighter and more yellowish green, and the bush is not
+so densely branched. The leaves of all the kinds are inclined to hang
+down in cold weather, and this habit is more clearly marked in the
+_catawbiense_ varieties.
+
+There is one old kind called _Multum maculatum_--I dare say one of the
+earliest hybrids--for which I have a special liking. It is now despised
+by florists, because the flower is thin in texture and the petal
+narrow, and the truss not tightly filled. Nevertheless I find it quite
+the most beautiful Rhododendron as a cut flower, perhaps just because of
+these unorthodox qualities. And much as I admire the great bouncing
+beauties that are most justly the pride of their raisers, I hold that
+this most refined and delicate class of beauty equally deserves faithful
+championship. The flowers of this pretty old kind are of a delicate
+milk-white, and the lower petals are generously spotted with a
+rosy-scarlet of the loveliest quality. The leaves are the longest and
+narrowest and darkest green of any kind I know, making the bush
+conspicuously handsome in winter. I have to confess that it is a shy
+bloomer, and that it seems unwilling to flower in a young state, but I
+think of it as a thing so beautiful and desirable as to be worth waiting
+for.
+
+Within March, and before the busier season comes upon us, it is well to
+look out for the suckers that are likely to come on grafted plants. They
+may generally be detected by the typical _ponticum_ leaf, but if the
+foliage of a branch should be suspicious and yet doubtful, if on
+following the shoot down it is seen to come straight from the root and
+to have a redder bark than the rest, it may safely be taken for a
+robber. Of course the invading stock may be easily seen when in flower,
+but the good gardener takes it away before it has this chance of
+reproaching him. A lady visitor last year told me with some pride that
+she had a most wonderful Rhododendron in bloom; all the flower in the
+middle was crimson, with a ring of purple-flowered branches outside. I
+am afraid she was disappointed when I offered condolence instead of
+congratulation, and had to tell her that the phenomenon was not uncommon
+among neglected bushes.
+
+When my Rhododendron beds were first planted, I followed the usual
+practice of filling the outer empty spaces of the clumps with hardy
+Heaths. Perhaps it is still the best or one of the best ways to begin
+when the bushes are quite young; for if planted the right distance
+apart--seven to nine feet--there must be large bare spaces between; but
+now that they have filled the greater part of the beds, I find that the
+other plants I tried are more to my liking. These are, foremost of all,
+_Andromeda Catesbaei_, then Lady Fern, and then the dwarf _Rhododendron
+myrtifolium_. The main spaces between the young bushes I plant with
+_Cistus laurifolius_, a perfectly hardy kind; this grows much faster
+than the Rhododendrons, and soon fills the middle spaces; by the time
+that the best of its life is over--for it is a short-lived bush--the
+Rhododendrons will be wanting all the space. Here and there in the inner
+spaces I put groups of _Lilium auratum_, a Lily that thrives in a peaty
+bed, and that looks its best when growing through other plants;
+moreover, when the Rhododendrons are out of flower, the Lily, whose
+blooming season is throughout the late summer and autumn, gives a new
+beauty and interest to that part of the garden.
+
+The time has come for pruning Roses, and for tying up and training the
+plants that clothe wall and fence and pergola. And this sets one
+thinking about climbing and rambling plants, and all their various ways
+and wants, and of how best to use them. One of my boundaries to a road
+is a fence about nine feet high, wall below and close oak paling above.
+It is planted with free-growing Roses of several types--Aimee Vibert,
+Madame Alfred Carriere, Reine Olga de Wurtemburg, and Bouquet d'Or, the
+strongest of the Dijon teas. Then comes a space of _Clematis Montana_
+and _Clematis flammula_, and then more Roses--Madame Plantier, Emelie
+Plantier (a delightful Rose to cut), and some of the grand Sweetbriars
+raised by Lord Penzance.
+
+From midsummer onward these Roses are continually cut for flower, and
+yield an abundance of quite the most ornamental class of bloom. For I
+like to have cut Roses arranged in a large, free way, with whole
+branches three feet or four feet long, easy to have from these
+free-growing kinds, that throw out branches fifteen feet long in one
+season, even on our poor, sandy soil, that contains no particle of that
+rich loam that Roses love. I think this same Reine Olga, the grand
+grower from which have come our longest and largest prunings, must be
+quite the best evergreen Rose, for it holds its full clothing of
+handsome dark-green leaves right through the winter. It seems to like
+hard pruning. I have one on a part of the pergola, but have no pleasure
+from it, as it has rushed up to the top, and nothing shows but a few
+naked stems.
+
+[Illustration: GARDEN DOOR-WAY WREATHED WITH CLEMATIS GRAVEOLENS.]
+
+[Illustration: COTTAGE PORCH WREATHED WITH THE DOUBLE WHITE ROSE (_R.
+alba_).]
+
+One has to find out how to use all these different Roses. How often one
+sees the wrong Roses used as climbers on the walls of a house. I have
+seen a Gloire de Dijon covering the side of a house with a profitless
+reticulation of bare stem, and a few leaves and flowers looking into the
+gutter just under the edge of the roof. What are generally recommended
+as climbing Roses are too ready to ramp away, leaving bare, leggy growth
+where wall-clothing is desired. One of the best is climbing Aimee
+Vibert, for with very little pruning it keeps well furnished nearly to
+the ground, and with its graceful clusters of white bloom and
+healthy-looking, polished leaves is always one of the prettiest of
+Roses. Its only fault is that it does not shed its dead petals, but
+retains the whole bloom in dead brown clusters.
+
+But if a Rose wishes to climb, it should be accommodated with a suitable
+place. That excellent old Rose, the Dundee Rambler, or the still
+prettier Garland Rose, will find a way up a Holly-tree, and fling out
+its long wreaths of tenderly-tinted bloom; and there can be no better
+way of using the lovely Himalayan _R. Brunonis_, with its long, almost
+blue leaves and wealth of milk-white flower. A common Sweetbriar will
+also push up among the branches of some dark evergreen, Yew or Holly,
+and throw out aloft its scented branches and rosy bloom, and look its
+very best.
+
+But some of these same free Roses are best of all if left in a clear
+space to grow exactly as they will without any kind of support or
+training. So placed, they grow into large rounded groups. Every year,
+just after the young laterals on the last year's branches have flowered,
+they throw out vigorous young rods that arch over as they complete their
+growth, and will be the flower-bearers of the year to come.
+
+Two kinds of Roses of rambling growth that are rather tender, but
+indispensable for beauty, are Fortune's Yellow and the Banksias. Pruning
+the free Roses is always rough work for the hands and clothes, but of
+all Roses I know, the worst to handle is Fortune's Yellow. The prickles
+are hooked back in a way that no care or ingenuity can escape; and
+whether it is their shape and power of cruel grip, or whether they have
+anything of a poisonous quality, I do not know; but whereas hands
+scratched and torn by Roses in general heal quickly, the wounds made by
+Fortune's Yellow are much more painful and much slower to get well. I
+knew an old labourer who died of a rose-prick. He used to work about the
+roads, and at cleaning the ditches and mending the hedges. For some time
+I did not see him, and when I asked another old countryman, "What's gone
+o' Master Trussler?" the answer was, "He's dead--died of a canker-bush."
+The wild Dog-rose is still the "canker" in the speech of the old people,
+and a thorn or prickle is still a "bush." A Dog-rose prickle had gone
+deep into the old hedger's hand--a "bush" more or less was nothing to
+him, but the neglected little wound had become tainted with some
+impurity, blood-poisoning had set in, and my poor old friend had truly
+enough "died of a canker-bush."
+
+The flowering season of Fortune's Yellow is a very short one, but it
+comes so early, and the flowers have such incomparable beauty, and are
+so little like those of any other Rose, that its value is quite without
+doubt. Some of the Tea Roses approach it in its pink and copper
+colouring, but the loose, open, rather flaunting form of the flower, and
+the twisted set of the petals, display the colour better than is
+possible in any of the more regular-shaped Roses. It is a good plan to
+grow it through some other wall shrub, as it soon gets bare below, and
+the early maturing flowering tips are glad to be a little sheltered by
+the near neighbourhood of other foliage.
+
+I do not think that there is any other Rose that has just the same rich
+butter colour as the Yellow Banksian, and this unusual colouring is the
+more distinct because each little Rose in the cluster is nearly evenly
+coloured all over, besides being in such dense bunches. The season of
+bloom is very short, but the neat, polished foliage is always pleasant
+to see throughout the year. The white kind and the larger white are both
+lovely as to the individual bloom, but they flower so much more shyly
+that the yellow is much the better garden plant.
+
+But the best of all climbing or rambling plants, whether for wall or
+arbour or pergola, is undoubtedly the Grape-Vine. Even when trimly
+pruned and trained for fruit-bearing on an outer wall it is an admirable
+picture of leafage and fruit-cluster; but to have it in fullest beauty
+it must ramp at will, for it is only when the fast-growing branches are
+thrown out far and wide that it fairly displays its graceful vigour and
+the generous magnificence of its incomparable foliage.
+
+The hardy Chasselas, known in England by the rather misleading name
+Royal Muscadine, is one of the best, both for fruit and foliage. The
+leaves are of moderate size, with clearly serrated edges and that
+strongly waved outline that gives the impression of powerful build, and
+is, in fact, a mechanical contrivance intended to stiffen the structure.
+The colour of the leaves is a fresh, lively green, and in autumn they
+are prettily marbled with yellow. Where a very large-leaved Vine is
+wanted nothing is handsomer than the North American _Vitis Labrusca_ or
+the Asiatic _Vitis Coignettii_, whose autumn leaves are gorgeously
+coloured. For a place that demands more delicate foliage there is the
+Parsley-Vine, that has a delightful look of refinement, and another that
+should not be forgotten is the Claret-Vine, with autumnal colouring of
+almost scarlet and purple, and abundance of tightly clustered black
+fruit, nearly blue with a heavy bloom.
+
+Many an old house and garden can show the far-rambling power of the
+beautiful _Wistaria Chinensis_, and of the large-leaved _Aristolochia
+Sipho_, one of the best plants for covering a pergola, and of the
+varieties of _Ampelopsis_, near relations of the Grape-Vine. The limit
+of these notes only admits of mention of some of the more important
+climbers; but among these the ever-delightful white Jasmine must have a
+place. It will ramble far and fast if it has its own way, but then gives
+little flower; but by close winter pruning it can be kept full of bloom
+and leaf nearly to the ground.
+
+[Illustration: WILD HOP, ENTWINING WORMWOOD AND COW-PARSNIP.]
+
+The woods and hedges have also their beautiful climbing plants.
+Honeysuckle in suitable conditions will ramble to great heights--in this
+district most noticeable in tall Hollies and Junipers as well as in high
+hedges. The wild Clematis is most frequent on the chalk, where it laces
+together whole hedges and rushes up trees, clothing them in July with
+long wreaths of delicate bloom, and in September with still more
+conspicuous feathery seed. For rapid growth perhaps no English plant
+outstrips the Hop, growing afresh from the root every year, and almost
+equalling the Vine in beauty of leaf. The two kinds of wild Bryony are
+also herbaceous climbers of rapid growth, and among the most beautiful
+of our hedge plants.
+
+The wild Roses run up to great heights in hedge and thicket, and never
+look so well as when among the tangles of mixed growth of wild forest
+land or clambering through some old gnarled thorn-tree. The common
+Brambles are also best seen in these forest groups; these again in form
+of leaf show somewhat of a vine-like beauty.
+
+In the end of March, or at any time during the month when the wind is in
+the east or north-east, all increase and development of vegetation
+appears to cease. As things are, so they remain. Plants that are in
+flower retain their bloom, but, as it were, under protest. A kind of
+sullen dulness pervades all plant life. Sweet-scented shrubs do not give
+off their fragrance; even the woodland moss and earth and dead leaves
+withhold their sweet, nutty scent. The surface of the earth has an arid,
+infertile look; a slight haze of an ugly grey takes the colour out of
+objects in middle distance, and seems to rob the flowers of theirs, or
+to put them out of harmony with all things around. But a day comes, or,
+perhaps, a warmer night, when the wind, now breathing gently from the
+south-west, puts new life into all growing things. A marvellous change
+is wrought in a few hours. A little warm rain has fallen, and plants,
+invisible before, and doubtless still underground, spring into glad
+life.
+
+What an innocent charm there is about many of the true spring flowers.
+Primroses of many colours are now in bloom, but the prettiest, this
+year, is a patch of an early blooming white one, grouped with a delicate
+lilac. Then comes _Omphalodes verna_, with its flowers of brilliant blue
+and foliage of brightest green, better described by its pretty
+north-country name, Blue-eyed Mary. There are Violets of many colours,
+but daintiest of all is the pale-blue St. Helena; whether it is the
+effect of its delicate colouring, or whether it has really a better
+scent than other varieties of the common Violet, I cannot say, but it
+always seems to have a more refined fragrance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+APRIL
+
+Woodland spring flowers -- Daffodils in the copse -- Grape Hyacinths and
+other spring bulbs -- How best to plant them -- Flowering shrubs --
+Rock-plants -- Sweet scents of April -- Snowy Mespilus, Marsh Marigolds,
+and other spring flowers -- Primrose garden -- Pollen of Scotch Fir --
+Opening seed-pods of Fir and Gorse -- Auriculas -- Tulips -- Small
+shrubs for rock-garden -- Daffodils as cut flowers -- Lent Hellebores --
+Primroses -- Leaves of wild Arum.
+
+
+In early April there is quite a wealth of flower among plants that
+belong half to wood and half to garden. _Epimedium pinnatum_, with its
+delicate, orchid-like spike of pale-yellow bloom, flowers with its last
+year's leaves, but as soon as it is fully out the young leaves rush up,
+as if hastening to accompany the flowers. _Dentaria pinnata_, a woodland
+plant of Switzerland and Austria, is one of the handsomest of the
+white-flowered _cruciferae_, with well-filled heads of twelve to fifteen
+flowers, and palmate leaves of freshest green. Hard by, and the best
+possible plant to group with it, is the lovely Virginian Cowslip
+(_Mertensia virginica_), the very embodiment of the freshness of early
+spring. The sheaf of young leafage comes almost black out of the
+ground, but as the leaves develop, their dull, lurid colouring changes
+to a full, pale green of a curious texture, quite smooth, and yet
+absolutely unreflecting. The dark colouring of the young leaves now only
+remains as a faint tracery of veining on the backs of the leaves and
+stalks, and at last dies quite away as the bloom expands. The flower is
+of a rare and beautiful quality of colour, hard to describe--a
+rainbow-flower of purple, indigo, full and pale blue, and daintiest
+lilac, full of infinite variety and indescribable charm. The flowers are
+in terminal clusters, richly filled; lesser clusters springing from the
+axils of the last few leaves and joining with the topmost one to form a
+gracefully drooping head. The lurid colouring of the young leaves is
+recalled in the flower-stems and calix, and enhances the colour effect
+of the whole. The flower of the common Dog-tooth Violet is over, but the
+leaves have grown larger and handsomer. They look as if, originally of a
+purplish-red colour, some liquid had been dropped on them, making
+confluent pools of pale green, lightest at the centre of the drop. The
+noblest plant of the same family (_Erythronium giganteum_) is now in
+flower--a striking and beautiful wood plant, with turn-cap shaped
+flowers of palest straw-colour, almost white, and large leaves, whose
+markings are not drop-like as in the more familiar kind, but are
+arranged in a regular sequence of bold splashings, reminding one of a
+_Maranta_. The flowers, single or in pairs, rise on stems a foot or
+fifteen inches high; the throat is beautifully marked with flames of
+rich bay on a yellow ground, and the handsome group of golden-anthered
+stamens and silvery pistil make up a flower of singular beauty and
+refinement. That valuable Indian Primrose, _P. denticulata_, is another
+fine plant for the cool edge or shady hollows of woodland in rather
+good, deep soil.
+
+But the glory of the copse just now consists in the great stretches of
+Daffodils. Through the wood run shallow, parallel hollows, the lowest
+part of each depression some nine paces apart. Local tradition says they
+are the remains of old pack-horse roads; they occur frequently in the
+forest-like heathery uplands of our poor-soiled, sandy land, running,
+for the most part, three or four together, almost evenly side by side.
+The old people account for this by saying that when one track became too
+much worn another was taken by its side. Where these pass through the
+birch copse the Daffodils have been planted in the shallow hollows of
+the old ways, in spaces of some three yards broad by thirty or forty
+yards long--one kind at a time. Two of such tracks, planted with
+_Narcissus princeps_ and _N. Horsfieldi_, are now waving rivers of
+bloom, in many lights and accidents of cloud and sunshine full of
+pictorial effect. The planting of Daffodils in this part of the copse is
+much better than in any other portions where there were no guiding
+track-ways, and where they were planted in haphazard sprinklings.
+
+[Illustration: DAFFODILS IN THE COPSE.]
+
+The Grape Hyacinths are now in full bloom. It is well to avoid the
+common one (_Muscari racemosum_), at any rate in light soils, where it
+becomes a troublesome weed. One of the best is _M. conicum_; this, with
+the upright-leaved _M. botryoides_, and its white variety, are the best
+for general use, but the Plume Hyacinth, which flowers later, should
+have a place. _Ornithogalum nutans_ is another of the bulbous plants
+that, though beautiful in flower, becomes so pestilent a weed that it is
+best excluded.
+
+Where and how the early flowering bulbs had best be planted is a
+question of some difficulty. Perhaps the mixed border, where they are
+most usually put, is the worst place of all, for when in flower they
+only show as forlorn little patches of bloom rather far apart, and when
+their leaves die down, leaving their places looking empty, the ruthless
+spade or trowel stabs into them when it is desired to fill the space
+with some other plant. Moreover, when the border is manured and partly
+dug in the autumn, it is difficult to avoid digging up the bulbs just
+when they are in full root-growth. Probably the best plan is to devote a
+good space of cool bank to small bulbs and hardy ferns, planting the
+ferns in such groups as will leave good spaces for the bulbs; then as
+their leaves are going the fern fronds are developing and will cover the
+whole space. Another way is to have them among any groups of newly
+planted small shrubs, to be left there for spring blooming until the
+shrubs have covered their allotted space.
+
+Many flowering shrubs are in beauty. _Andromeda floribunda_ still holds
+its persistent bloom that has endured for nearly two months. The thick,
+drooping, tassel-like bunches of bloom of _Andromeda japonica_ are just
+going over. _Magnolia stellata_, a compact bush some five feet high and
+wide, is white with the multitude of its starry flowers; individually
+they look half double, having fourteen to sixteen petals. _Forsythia
+suspensa_, with its graceful habit and tender yellow flower, is a much
+better shrub than _F. viridissima_, though, strangely enough, that is
+the one most commonly planted. Corchorus, with its bright-yellow balls,
+the fine old rosy Ribes, the Japan Quinces and their salmon-coloured
+relative _Pyrus Mauleii_, _Spiraea Thunbergi_, with its neat habit and
+myriads of tiny flowers, these make frequent points of beauty and
+interest.
+
+In the rock-garden, _Cardamine trifoliata_ and _Hutchinsia alpina_ are
+conspicuous from their pure white flowers and neat habit; both have
+leaves of darkest green, as if the better to show off the bloom.
+_Ranunculus montanus_ fringes the cool base of a large stone; its whole
+height not over three inches, though its bright-yellow flowers are
+larger than field buttercups. The surface of the petals is curiously
+brilliant, glistening and flashing like glass. _Corydalis capnoides_ is
+a charming rock-plant, with flowers of palest sulphur colour, one of the
+neatest and most graceful of its family.
+
+[Illustration: MAGNOLIA STELLATA.]
+
+[Illustration: DAFFODILS AMONG JUNIPERS WHERE GARDEN JOINS COPSE.]
+
+Border plants are pushing up vigorous green growth; finest of all are
+the Veratrums, with their bold, deeply-plaited leaves of brilliant
+green. Delphiniums and Oriental Poppies have also made strong foliage,
+and Daylilies are conspicuous from their fresh masses of pale greenery.
+Flag Iris have their leaves three parts grown, and Paeonies are a foot or
+more high, in all varieties of rich red colouring. It is a good plan,
+when they are in beds or large groups, to plant the dark-flowered
+Wallflowers among them, their colour making a rich harmony with the reds
+of the young Paeony growths.
+
+There are balmy days in mid-April, when the whole garden is fragrant
+with Sweetbriar. It is not "fast of its smell," as Bacon says of the
+damask rose, but gives it so lavishly that one cannot pass near a plant
+without being aware of its gracious presence. Passing upward through the
+copse, the warm air draws a fragrance almost as sweet, but infinitely
+more subtle, from the fresh green of the young birches; it is like a
+distant whiff of Lily of the Valley. Higher still the young leafage of
+the larches gives a delightful perfume of the same kind. It seems as if
+it were the office of these mountain trees, already nearest the high
+heaven, to offer an incense of praise for their new life.
+
+Few plants will grow under Scotch fir, but a notable exception is the
+Whortleberry, now a sheet of brilliant green, and full of its
+arbutus-like, pink-tinged flower. This plant also has a pleasant scent
+in the mass, difficult to localise, but coming in whiffs as it will.
+
+The snowy Mespilus (_Amelanchier_) shows like puffs of smoke among the
+firs and birches, full of its milk-white, cherry-like bloom--a true
+woodland shrub or small tree. It loves to grow in a thicket of other
+trees, and to fling its graceful sprays about through their branches. It
+is a doubtful native, but naturalised and plentiful in the neighbouring
+woods. As seen in gardens, it is usually a neat little tree of shapely
+form, but it is more beautiful when growing at its own will in the high
+woods.
+
+Marshy hollows in the valleys are brilliant with Marsh Marigold (_Caltha
+palustris_); damp meadows have them in plenty, but they are largest and
+handsomest in the alder-swamps of our valley bottoms, where their great
+luscious clumps rise out of pools of black mud and water.
+
+_Adonis vernalis_ is one of the brightest flowers of the middle of
+April, the flowers looking large for the size of the plant. The
+bright-yellow, mostly eight-petalled, blooms are comfortably seated in
+dense, fennel-like masses of foliage. It makes strong tufts, that are
+the better for division every four years. The spring Bitter-vetch
+(_Orobus vernus_) blooms at the same time, a remarkably clean-looking
+plant, with its cheerful red and purple blossom and handsomely divided
+leaves. It is one of the toughest of plants to divide, the mass of
+black root is like so much wire. It is a good plan with plants that have
+such roots, when dividing-time comes, to take the clumps to a strong
+bench or block and cut them through at the crown with a sharp
+cold-chisel and hammer. Another of the showiest families of plants of
+the time is _Doronicum_. _D. Austriacum_ is the earliest, but it is
+closely followed by the fine _D. Plantagineum_. The large form of wood
+Forget-me-not (_Myosotis sylvatica major_) is in sheets of bloom,
+opening pink and changing to a perfect blue. This is a great improvement
+on the old smaller one. Grouped with it, as an informal border, and in
+patches running through and among its clumps, is the Foam-flower
+(_Tiarella cordifolia_), whose flower in the mass looks like the wreaths
+of foam tossed aside by a mountain torrent. By the end of the month the
+Satin-leaf (_Heuchera Richardsoni_) is pushing up its richly-coloured
+leaves, of a strong bronze-red, gradating to bronze-green at the outer
+edge. The beauty of the plant is in the colour and texture of the
+foliage. To encourage full leaf growth the flower stems should be
+pinched out, and as they push up rather persistently, they should be
+looked over every few days for about a fortnight.
+
+[Illustration: TIARELLA CORDIFOLIA. (_Height, 12 inches._)]
+
+[Illustration: HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY. (_See page 105._) (_Height, 9
+feet._)]
+
+The Primrose garden is now in beauty, but I have so much to say about it
+that I have given it a chapter to itself towards the end of the book.
+
+The Scotch firs are shedding their pollen; a flowering branch shaken or
+struck with a stick throws out a pale-yellow cloud. Heavy rain will
+wash it out, so that after a storm the sides of the roads and paths look
+as if powdered sulphur had been washed up in drifts. The sun has gained
+great power, and on still bright days sharp _snicking_ sounds are to be
+heard from the firs. The dry cones of last year are opening, and the
+flattened seeds with their paper-like edges are fluttering down. Another
+sound, much like it but just a shade sharper and more _staccato_, is
+heard from the Gorse bushes, whose dry pods are flying open and letting
+fall the hard, polished, little bean-like seeds.
+
+Border Auriculas are making a brave show. Nothing in the flower year is
+more interesting than a bed of good seedlings of the Alpine class. I
+know nothing better for pure beauty of varied colouring among early
+flowers. Except in varieties of _Salpiglossis_, such rich gradation of
+colour, from pale lilac to rich purple, and from rosy pink to deepest
+crimson, is hardly to be found in any one family of plants. There are
+varieties of cloudings of smoky-grey, sometimes approaching black,
+invading, and at the same time enhancing, the purer colours, and numbers
+of shades of half-tones of red and purple, such as are comprised within
+the term _murrey_ of heraldry, and tender blooms of one colour, sulphurs
+and milk-whites--all with the admirable texture and excellent perfume
+that belong to the "Bear's-ears" of old English gardens. For practical
+purposes the florist's definition of a good Auricula is of little value;
+that is for the show-table, and, as Bacon says, "Nothing to the true
+pleasure of a garden." The qualities to look for in the bed of seedlings
+are not the narrowing ones of proportion of eye to tube, of exact circle
+in the circumference of the individual pip, and so on, but to notice
+whether the plant has a handsome look and stands up well, and is a
+delightful and beautiful thing as a whole.
+
+[Illustration: TULIPA RETROFLEXA.]
+
+[Illustration: LATE SINGLE TULIPS, BREEDERS AND BYBLOEMEN.]
+
+Tulips are the great garden flowers in the last week of April and
+earliest days of May. In this plant also the rule of the show-table is
+no sure guide to garden value; for the show Tulip, beautiful though it
+is, is of one class alone--namely, the best of the "broken" varieties of
+the self-coloured seedlings called "breeders." These seedlings, after
+some years of cultivation, change or "break" into a variation in which
+the original colouring is only retained in certain flames or feathers of
+colour, on a ground of either white or yellow. If the flames in each
+petal are symmetrical and well arranged, according to the rules laid
+down by the florist, it is a good flower; it receives a name, and
+commands a certain price. If, on the other hand, the markings are
+irregular, however beautiful the colouring, the flower is comparatively
+worthless, and is "thrown into mixture." The kinds that are the grandest
+in gardens are ignored by the florist. One of the best for graceful and
+delicate beauty is _Tulipa retroflexa_, of a soft lemon-yellow colour,
+and twisted and curled petals; then Silver Crown, a white flower with a
+delicate picotee-like thread of scarlet along the edge of the sharply
+pointed and reflexed petals. A variety of this called Sulphur Crown is
+only a little less beautiful. Then there is Golden Crown, also with
+pointed petals and occasional threadings of scarlet. Nothing is more
+gorgeous than the noble _Gesneriana major_, with its great chalice of
+crimson-scarlet and pools of blue in the inner base of each petal. The
+gorgeously flamed Parrot Tulips are indispensable, and the large double
+Yellow Rose, and the early double white La Candeur. Of the later kinds
+there are many of splendid colouring and noble port; conspicuous among
+them are _Reine d'Espagne_, _Couleur de vin_, and _Bleu celeste_. There
+are beautiful colourings of scarlet, crimson, yellow, chocolate, and
+purple among the "breeders," as well as among the so-called _bizarres_
+and _bybloemen_ that comprise the show kinds.
+
+The best thing now in the rock-garden is a patch of some twenty plants
+of _Arnebia echioides_, always happy in our poor, dry soil. It is of the
+Borage family, a native of Armenia. It flowers in single or
+double-branching spikes of closely-set flowers of a fine yellow. Just
+below each indentation of the five-lobed corolla is a spot which looks
+black by contrast, but is of a very dark, rich, velvety brown. The day
+after the flower has expanded the spot has faded to a moderate brown,
+the next day to a faint tinge, and on the fourth day it is gone. The
+legend, accounting for the spots, says that Mahomet touched the flower
+with the tips of his fingers, hence its English name of Prophet-flower.
+
+The upper parts of the rock-garden that are beyond hand-reach are
+planted with dwarf shrubs, many of them sweetly scented either as to
+leaf or flower--_Gaultherias_, Sweet Gale, Alpine Rhododendron,
+_Skimmias_, _Pernettyas_, _Ledums_, and hardy Daphnes. _Daphne pontica_
+now gives off delicious wafts of fragrance, intensely sweet in the
+evening.
+
+In March and April Daffodils are the great flowers for house decoration,
+coming directly after the Lent Hellebores. Many people think these
+beautiful late-flowering Hellebores useless for cutting because they
+live badly in water. But if properly prepared they live quite well, and
+will remain ten days in beauty. Directly they are cut, and immediately
+before putting in water, the stalks should be slit up three or four
+inches, or according to their length, and then put in deep, so that the
+water comes nearly up to the flowers; and so they should remain, in a
+cool place, for some hours, or for a whole night, after which they can
+be arranged for the room. Most of them are inclined to droop; it is the
+habit of the plant in growth; this may be corrected by arranging them
+with something stiff like Box or Berberis.
+
+_Anemone fulgens_ is a grand cutting flower, and looks well with its own
+leaves only or with flowering twigs of Laurustinus. Then there are
+Pansies, delightful things in a room, but they should be cut in whole
+branches of leafy stem and flower and bud. At first the growths are
+short and only suit dish-shaped things, but as the season goes on they
+grow longer and bolder, and graduate first into bowls and then into
+upright glasses. I think Pansies are always best without mixture of
+other flowers, and in separate colours, or only in such varied tints as
+make harmonies of one class of colour at a time.
+
+The big yellow and white bunch Primroses are delightful room flowers,
+beautiful, and of sweetest scent. When full-grown the flower-stalks are
+ten inches long and more. Among the seedlings there are always a certain
+number that are worthless. These are pounced upon as soon as they show
+their bloom, and cut up for greenery to go with the cut flowers, leaving
+the root-stock with all its middle foliage, and cutting away the roots
+and any rough outside leaves.
+
+When the first Daffodils are out and suitable greenery is not abundant
+in the garden (for it does not do to cut their own blades), I bring home
+handfuls of the wild Arum leaves, so common in roadside hedges, grasping
+the whole plant close to the ground; then a steady pull breaks it away
+from the tuber, and you have a fine long-stalked sheaf of leafage held
+together by its own underground stem. This should be prepared like the
+Lent Hellebores, by putting it deep in water for a time. I always think
+the trumpet Daffodils look better with this than with any other kind of
+foliage. When the wild Arum is full-grown the leaves are so large and
+handsome that they do quite well to accompany the white Arum flowers
+from the greenhouse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MAY
+
+Cowslips -- Morells -- Woodruff -- Felling oak timber -- Trillium and
+other wood-plants -- Lily of the Valley naturalised -- Rock-wall flowers
+-- Two good wall-shrubs -- Queen wasps -- Rhododendrons -- Arrangement
+for colour -- Separate colour-groups -- Difficulty of choosing -- Hardy
+Azaleas -- Grouping flowers that bloom together -- Guelder-rose as
+climber -- The garden-wall door -- The Paeony garden -- Moutans -- Paeony
+varieties -- Species desirable for garden.
+
+
+While May is still young, Cowslips are in beauty on the chalk lands a
+few miles distant, but yet within pleasant reach. They are finest of all
+in orchards, where the grass grows tall and strong under the half-shade
+of the old apple-trees, some of the later kinds being still loaded with
+bloom. The blooming of the Cowslip is the signal for a search for the
+Morell, one of the very best of the edible fungi. It grows in open woods
+or where the undergrowth has not yet grown high, and frequently in old
+parks and pastures near or under elms. It is quite unlike any other
+fungus; shaped like a tall egg, with the pointed end upwards, on a
+short, hollow stalk, and looking something like a sponge. It has a
+delicate and excellent flavour, and is perfectly wholesome.
+
+The pretty little Woodruff is in flower; what scent is so delicate as
+that of its leaves? They are almost sweeter when dried, each little
+whorl by itself, with the stalk cut closely away above and below. It is
+a pleasant surprise to come upon these fragrant little stars between the
+leaves of a book. The whole plant revives memories of rambles in
+Bavarian woodlands, and of Mai-trank, that best of the "cup" tribe of
+pleasant drinks, whose flavour is borrowed from its flowering tips.
+
+In the first week in May oak-timber is being felled. The wood is
+handsomer, from showing the grain better, when it is felled in the
+winter, but it is delayed till now because of the value of the bark for
+tanning, and just now the fast-rising sap makes the bark strip easily. A
+heavy fall is taking place in the fringes of a large wood of old Scotch
+fir. Where the oaks grow there is a blue carpet of wild Hyacinth; the
+pathway is a slightly hollowed lane, so that the whole sheet of flower
+right and left is nearly on a level with the eye, and looks like solid
+pools of blue. The oaks not yet felled are putting forth their leaves of
+golden bronze. The song of the nightingale and the ring of the woodman's
+axe gain a rich musical quality from the great fir wood. Why a wood of
+Scotch fir has this wonderful property of a kind of musical
+reverberation I do not know; but so it is. Any sound that occurs within
+it is, on a lesser scale, like a sound in a cathedral. The tree itself
+when struck gives a musical note. Strike an oak or an elm on the trunk
+with a stick, and the sound is mute; strike a Scotch fir, and it is a
+note of music.
+
+[Illustration: TRILLIUM IN THE WILD GARDEN.]
+
+In the copse are some prosperous patches of the beautiful North American
+Wood-lily (_Trillium grandiflorum_). It likes a bed of deep leaf-soil on
+levels or cool slopes in woodland, where its large white flowers and
+whorls of handsome leaves look quite at home. Beyond it are widely
+spreading patches of Solomon's Seal and tufts of the Wood-rush (_Luzula
+sylvatica_), showing by their happy vigour how well they like their
+places, while the natural woodland carpet of moss and dead leaves puts
+the whole together. Higher in the copse the path runs through stretches
+of the pretty little _Smilacina bifolia_, and the ground beyond this is
+a thick bed of Whortleberry, filling all the upper part of the copse
+under oak and birch and Scotch fir. The little flower-bells of the
+Whortleberry have already given place to the just-formed fruit, which
+will ripen in July, and be a fine feast for the blackbirds.
+
+Other parts of the copse, where there was no Heath or Whortleberry, were
+planted thinly with the large Lily of the Valley. It has spread and
+increased and become broad sheets of leaf and bloom, from which
+thousands of flowers can be gathered without making gaps, or showing
+that any have been removed; when the bloom is over the leaves still
+stand in handsome masses till they are hidden by the fast-growing
+bracken. They do not hurt each other, as it seems that the Lily of the
+Valley, having the roots running just underground, while the fern-roots
+are much deeper, the two occupy their respective _strata_ in perfect
+good fellowship. The neat little _Smilacina_ is a near relation of the
+Lily of the Valley; its leaves are of an even more vivid green, and its
+little modest spikes of white flower are charming. It loves the poor,
+sandy soil, and increases in it fast, but will have nothing to say to
+clay. A very delicate and beautiful North American fern (_Dicksonia
+punctilobulata_) proves a good colonist in the copse. It spreads rapidly
+by creeping roots, and looks much like our native _Thelipteris_, but is
+of a paler green colour. In the rock-garden the brightest patches of
+bloom are shown by the tufts of dwarf Wallflowers; of these,
+_Cheiranthus alpinus_ has a strong lemon colour that is of great
+brilliancy in the mass, and _C. Marshalli_ is of a dark orange colour,
+equally powerful. The curiously-tinted _C. mutabilis_, as its name
+implies, changes from a light mahogany colour when just open, first to
+crimson and then to purple. In length of life _C. alpinus_ and _C.
+Marshalli_ are rather more than biennials, and yet too short-lived to be
+called true perennials; cuttings of one year flower the next, and are
+handsome tufts the year after, but are scarcely worth keeping longer.
+_C. mutabilis_ is longer lived, especially if the older growths are cut
+right away, when the tuft will generally spring into vigorous new life.
+
+_Orobus aurantiacus_ is a beautiful plant not enough grown, one of the
+handsomest of the Pea family, with flowers of a fine orange colour, and
+foliage of a healthy-looking golden-green. A striking and handsome plant
+in the upper part of the rockery is _Othonna cheirifolia_; its aspect is
+unusual and interesting, with its bunches of thick, blunt-edged leaves
+of blue-grey colouring, and large yellow daisy flowers. There is a
+pretty group of the large white Thrift, and near it a spreading carpet
+of blue Veronica and some of the splendid gentian-blue _Phacelia
+campanularia_, a valuable annual for filling any bare patches of rockery
+where its brilliant colouring will suit the neighbouring plants, or,
+best of all, in patches among dwarf ferns, where its vivid blue would be
+seen to great advantage.
+
+Two wall-shrubs have been conspicuously beautiful during May; the
+Mexican Orange-flower (_Choisya ternata_) has been smothered in its
+white bloom, so closely resembling orange-blossom. With a slight winter
+protection of fir boughs it seems quite at home in our hot, dry soil,
+grows fast, and is very easy to propagate by layers. When cut, it lasts
+for more than a week in water. _Piptanthus nepalensis_ has also made a
+handsome show, with its abundant yellow, pea-shaped bloom and deep-green
+trefoil leaves. The dark-green stems have a slight bloom on a
+half-polished surface, and a pale ring at each joint gives them somewhat
+the look of bamboos.
+
+Now is the time to look out for the big queen wasps and to destroy as
+many as possible. They seem to be specially fond of the flowers of two
+plants, the large perennial Cornflower (_Centaurea montana_) and the
+common Cotoneaster. I have often secured a dozen in a few minutes on one
+or other of these plants, first knocking them down with a battledore.
+
+Now, in the third week of May, Rhododendrons are in full bloom on the
+edge of the copse. The plantation was made about nine years ago, in one
+of the regions where lawn and garden were to join the wood. During the
+previous blooming season the best nurseries were visited and careful
+observations made of colouring, habit, and time of blooming. The space
+they were to fill demanded about seventy bushes, allowing an average of
+eight feet from plant to plant--not seventy different kinds, but,
+perhaps, ten of one kind, and two or three fives, and some threes, and a
+few single plants, always bearing in mind the ultimate intention of
+pictorial aspect as a whole. In choosing the plants and in arranging and
+disposing the groups these ideas were kept in mind: to make pleasant
+ways from lawn to copse; to group only in beautiful colour harmonies; to
+choose varieties beautiful in themselves; to plant thoroughly well, and
+to avoid overcrowding. Plantations of these grand shrubs are generally
+spoilt or ineffective, if not absolutely jarring, for want of attention
+to these simple rules. The choice of kinds is now so large, and the
+variety of colouring so extensive, that nothing can be easier than to
+make beautiful combinations, if intending planters will only take the
+small amount of preliminary trouble that is needful. Some of the
+clumps are of brilliant scarlet-crimson, rose and white, but out of the
+great choice of colours that might be so named only those are chosen
+that make just the colour-harmony that was intended. A large group,
+quite detached from this one, and more in the shade of the copse, is of
+the best of the lilacs, purples, and whites. When some clumps of young
+hollies have grown, those two groups will not be seen at the same time,
+except from a distance. The purple and white group is at present rather
+the handsomest, from the free-growing habit of the fine old kind _Album
+elegans_, which forms towering masses at the back. A detail of pictorial
+effect that was aimed at, and that has come out well, was devised in the
+expectation that the purple groups would look richer in the shade, and
+the crimson ones in the sun. This arrangement has answered admirably.
+Before planting, the ground, of the poorest quality possible, was deeply
+trenched, and the Rhododendrons were planted in wide holes filled with
+peat, and finished with a comfortable "mulch," or surface-covering of
+farmyard manure. From this a supply of grateful nutriment was gradually
+washed in to the roots. This beneficial surface-dressing was renewed
+every year for two years after planting, and even longer in the case of
+the slower growing kinds. No plant better repays care during its early
+years. Broad grass paths leading from the lawn at several points pass
+among the clumps, and are continued through the upper parts of the
+copse, passing through zones of different trees; first a good stretch
+of birch and holly, then of Spanish chestnut, next of oak, and finally
+of Scotch fir, with a sprinkling of birch and mountain ash, all with an
+undergrowth of heath and whortleberry and bracken. Thirty years ago it
+was all a wood of old Scotch fir. This was cut at its best marketable
+maturity, and the present young wood is made of what came up self-sown.
+This natural wild growth was thick enough to allow of vigorous cutting
+out, and the preponderance of firs in the upper part and of birch in the
+lower suggested that these were the kinds that should predominate in
+their respective places.
+
+[Illustration: RHODODENDRONS WHERE THE COPSE AND GARDEN MEET.]
+
+It may be useful to describe a little more in detail the plan I followed
+in grouping Rhododendrons, for I feel sure that any one with a feeling
+for harmonious colouring, having once seen or tried some such plan, will
+never again approve of the haphazard mixtures. There may be better
+varieties representing the colourings aimed at in the several groups,
+but those named are ones that I know, and they will serve as well as any
+others to show what is meant.
+
+The colourings seem to group themselves into six classes of easy
+harmonies, which I venture to describe thus:--
+
+1. Crimsons inclining to scarlet or blood-colour grouped with dark
+claret-colour and true pink.
+
+In this group I have planted Nigrescens, dark claret-colour; John
+Waterer and James Marshall Brook, both fine red-crimsons; Alexander
+Adie and Atrosanguineum, good crimsons, inclining to blood-colour;
+Alarm, rosy-scarlet; and Bianchi, pure pink.
+
+2. Light scarlet rose colours inclining to salmon, a most desirable
+range of colour, but of which the only ones I know well are Mrs. R. S.
+Holford, and a much older kind, Lady Eleanor Cathcart. These I put by
+themselves, only allowing rather near them the good pink Bianchi.
+
+3. Rose colours inclining to amaranth.
+
+4. Amaranths or magenta-crimsons.
+
+5. Crimson or amaranth-purples.
+
+6. Cool clear purples of the typical _ponticum_ class, both dark and
+light, grouped with lilac-whites, such as _Album elegans_ and _Album
+grandiflorum_. The beautiful partly-double _Everestianum_ comes into
+this group, but nothing redder among purples. _Fastuosum florepleno_ is
+also admitted, and _Luciferum_ and _Reine Hortense_, both good
+lilac-whites. But the purples that are most effective are merely
+_ponticum_ seedlings, chosen when in bloom in the nursery for their
+depth and richness of cool purple colour.
+
+My own space being limited, I chose three of the above groups only,
+leaving out, as of colouring less pleasing to my personal liking, groups
+3, 4, and 5. The remaining ones gave me examples of colouring the most
+widely different, and at the same time the most agreeable to my
+individual taste. It would have been easier, if that had been the
+object, to have made groups of the three other classes of colouring,
+which comprise by far the largest number of the splendid varieties now
+grown. There are a great many beautiful whites; of these, two that I
+most admire are Madame Carvalho and Sappho; the latter is an immense
+flower, with a conspicuous purple blotch. There is also a grand old kind
+called Minnie, a very large-growing one, with fine white trusses; and a
+dwarf-growing white that comes early into bloom is Cunningham's White,
+also useful for forcing, as it is a small plant, and a free bloomer.
+
+[Illustration: GRASS WALKS THROUGH THE COPSE.]
+
+Nothing is more perplexing than to judge of the relative merits of
+colours in a Rhododendron nursery, where they are all mixed up. I have
+twice been specially to look for varieties of a true pink colour, but
+the quantity of untrue pinks is so great that anything approaching a
+clear pink looks much better than it is. In this way I chose Kate
+Waterer and Sylph, both splendid varieties; but when I grew them with my
+true pink Bianchi they would not do, the colour having the suspicion of
+rank quality that I wished to keep out of that group. This same Bianchi,
+with its mongrel-sounding name, I found was not grown in the larger
+nurseries. I had it from Messrs. Maurice Young, of the Milford
+Nurseries, near Godalming. I regretted to hear lately from some one to
+whom I recommended it that it could not be supplied. It is to be hoped
+that so good a thing has not been lost.
+
+A little way from the main Rhododendron clumps, and among bushy
+Andromedas, I have the splendid hybrid of _R. Aucklandi_, raised by
+Mr. A. Waterer. The trusses are astoundingly large, and the individual
+blooms large and delicately beautiful, like small richly-modelled lilies
+of a tender, warm, white colour. It is quite hardy south of London, and
+unquestionably desirable. Its only fault is leggy growth; one year's
+growth measures twenty-three inches, but this only means that it should
+be planted among other bushes.
+
+[Illustration: RHODODENDRONS AT THE EDGE OF THE COPSE.]
+
+The last days of May see hardy Azaleas in beauty. Any of them may be
+planted in company, for all their colours harmonise. In this garden,
+where care is taken to group plants well for colour, the whites are
+planted at the lower and more shady end of the group; next come the pale
+yellows and pale pinks, and these are followed at a little distance by
+kinds whose flowers are of orange, copper, flame, and scarlet-crimson
+colourings; this strong-coloured group again softening off at the upper
+end by strong yellows, and dying away into the woodland by bushes of the
+common yellow _Azalea pontica_, and its variety with flowers of larger
+size and deeper colour. The plantation is long in shape, straggling over
+a space of about half an acre, the largest and strongest-coloured group
+being in an open clearing about midway in the length. The ground between
+them is covered with a natural growth of the wild Ling (_Calluna_) and
+Whortleberry, and the small, white-flowered Bed-straw, with the
+fine-bladed Sheep's-fescue grass, the kind most abundant in heathland.
+The surrounding ground is copse, of a wild, forest-like character, of
+birch and small oak. A wood-path of wild heath cut short winds through
+the planted group, which also comprises some of the beautiful
+white-flowered Californian _Azalea occidentalis_, and bushes of some of
+the North American Vacciniums.
+
+Azaleas should never be planted among or even within sight of
+Rhododendrons. Though both enjoy a moist peat soil, and have a near
+botanical relationship, they are incongruous in appearance, and
+impossible to group together for colour. This must be understood to
+apply to the two classes of plants of the hardy kinds, as commonly grown
+in gardens. There are tender kinds of the East Indian families that are
+quite harmonious, but those now in question are the ordinary varieties
+of so-called Ghent Azaleas, and the hardy hybrid Rhododendrons. In the
+case of small gardens, where there is only room for one bed or clump of
+peat plants, it would be better to have a group of either one or the
+other of these plants, rather than spoil the effect by the inharmonious
+mixture of both.
+
+I always think it desirable to group together flowers that bloom at the
+same time. It is impossible, and even undesirable, to have a garden in
+blossom all over, and groups of flower-beauty are all the more enjoyable
+for being more or less isolated by stretches of intervening greenery. As
+one lovely group for May I recommend Moutan Paeony and _Clematis
+montana_, the Clematis on a wall low enough to let its wreaths of bloom
+show near the Paeony. The old Guelder Rose or Snowball-tree is beautiful
+anywhere, but I think it best of all on the cold side of a wall. Of
+course it is perfectly hardy, and a bush of strong, sturdy growth, and
+has no need of the wall either for support or for shelter; but I am for
+clothing the garden walls with all the prettiest things they can wear,
+and no shrub I know makes a better show. Moreover, as there is
+necessarily less wood in a flat wall tree than in a round bush, and as
+the front shoots must be pruned close back, it follows that much more
+strength is thrown into the remaining wood, and the blooms are much
+larger.
+
+I have a north wall eleven feet high, with a Guelder Rose on each side
+of a doorway, and a _Clematis montana_ that is trained on the top of the
+whole. The two flower at the same time, their growths mingling in
+friendly fashion, while their unlikeness of habit makes the
+companionship all the more interesting. The Guelder Rose is a
+stiff-wooded thing, the character of its main stems being a kind of
+stark uprightness, though the great white balls hang out with a certain
+freedom from the newly-grown shoots. The Clematis meets it with an
+exactly opposite way of growth, swinging down its great swags of
+many-flowered garland masses into the head of its companion, with here
+and there a single flowering streamer making a tiny wreath on its own
+account.
+
+On the southern sides of the same gateway are two large bushes of the
+Mexican Orange-flower (_Choisya ternata_), loaded with its orange-like
+bloom. Buttresses flank the doorway on this side, dying away into the
+general thickness of the wall above the arch by a kind of roofing of
+broad flat stones that lay back at an easy pitch. In mossy hollows at
+their joints and angles, some tufts of Thrift and of little Rock Pinks
+have found a home, and show as tenderly-coloured tufts of rather dull
+pink bloom. Above all is the same white Clematis, some of its abundant
+growth having been trained over the south side, so that this one plant
+plays a somewhat important part in two garden-scenes.
+
+Through the gateway again, beyond the wall northward and partly within
+its shade, is a portion of ground devoted to Paeonies, in shape a long
+triangle, whose proportion in length is about thrice its breadth
+measured at the widest end. A low cross-wall, five feet high, divides it
+nearly in half near the Guelder Roses, and it is walled again on the
+other long side of the triangle by a rough structure of stone and earth,
+which, in compliment to its appearance, we call the Old Wall, of which I
+shall have something to say later. Thus the Paeonies are protected all
+round, for they like a sheltered place, and the Moutans do best with
+even a little passing shade at some time of the day. Moutan is the
+Chinese name for Tree Paeony. For an immense hardy flower of beautiful
+colouring what can equal the salmon-rose Moutan Reine Elizabeth? Among
+the others that I have, those that give me most pleasure are Baronne
+d'Ales and Comtesse de Tuder, both pinks of a delightful quality, and
+a lovely white called Bijou de Chusan. The Tree Paeonies are also
+beautiful in leaf; the individual leaves are large and important, and so
+carried that they are well displayed. Their colour is peculiar, being
+bluish, but pervaded with a suspicion of pink or pinkish-bronze,
+sometimes of a metallic quality that faintly recalls some of the
+variously-coloured alloys of metal that the Japanese bronze-workers make
+and use with such consummate skill.
+
+[Illustration: SOUTH SIDE OF DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA AND CHOISYA.]
+
+[Illustration: NORTH SIDE OF THE SAME DOOR, WITH CLEMATIS MONTANA AND
+GUELDER-ROSE.]
+
+It is a matter of regret that varieties of the better kinds of Moutans
+are not generally grown on their own roots, and still more so that the
+stock in common use should not even be the type Tree Paeony, but one of
+the herbaceous kinds, so that we have plants of a hard-wooded shrub
+worked on a thing as soft as a Dahlia root. This is probably the reason
+why they are so difficult to establish, and so slow to grow, especially
+on light soils, even when their beds have been made deep and liberally
+enriched with what one judges to be the most gratifying comfort. Every
+now and then, just before blooming time, a plant goes off all at once,
+smitten with sudden death. At the time of making my collection I was
+unable to visit the French nurseries where these plants are so admirably
+grown, and whence most of the best kinds have come. I had to choose them
+by the catalogue description--always an unsatisfactory way to any one
+with a keen eye for colour, although in this matter the compilers of
+foreign catalogues are certainly less vague than those of our own. Many
+of the plants therefore had to be shifted into better groups for colour
+after their first blooming, a matter the more to be regretted as Paeonies
+dislike being moved.
+
+The other half of the triangular bit of Paeony ground--the pointed
+end--is given to the kinds I like best of the large June-flowered
+Paeonies, the garden varieties of the Siberian _P. albiflora_, popularly
+known as Chinese Paeonies. Though among these, as is the case with all
+the kinds, there is a preponderance of pink or rose-crimson colouring of
+a decidedly rank quality, yet the number of varieties is so great, that
+among the minority of really good colouring there are plenty to choose
+from, including a good number of beautiful whites and whites tinged with
+yellow. Of those I have, the kinds I like best are--
+
+    Hypatia, pink.
+    Madame Benare, salmon-rose.
+    The Queen, pale salmon-rose.
+    Leonie, salmon-rose.
+    Virginie, warm white.
+    Solfaterre, pale yellow.
+    Edouard Andre, deep claret.
+    Madame Calot, flesh pink.
+    Madame Breon.
+    Alba sulfurea.
+    Triomphans gandavensis.
+    Carnea elegans (Guerin).
+    Curiosa, pink and blush.
+    Prince Pierre Galitzin, blush.
+    Eugenie Verdier, pale pink.
+    Elegans superbissima, yellowish-white.
+    Virgo Maria, white.
+    Philomele, blush.
+    Madame Dhour, rose.
+    Duchesse de Nemours, yellow-white.
+    Faust.
+    Belle Douaisienne.
+    Jeanne d'Arc.
+    Marie Lemoine.
+
+Many of the lovely flowers in this class have a rather strong, sweet
+smell, something like a mixture of the scents of Rose and Tulip.
+
+Then there are the old garden Paeonies, the double varieties of _P.
+officinalis_. They are in three distinct colourings--full rich crimson,
+crimson-rose, and pale pink changing to dull white. These are the
+earliest to flower, and with them it is convenient, from the garden
+point of view, to class some of the desirable species.
+
+Some years ago my friend Mr. Barr kindly gave me a set of the Paeony
+species as grown by him. I wished to have them, not for the sake of
+making a collection, but in order to see which were the ones I should
+like best to grow as garden flowers. In due time they grew into strong
+plants and flowered. A good many had to be condemned because of the raw
+magenta colour of the bloom, one or two only that had this defect being
+reprieved on account of their handsome foliage and habit. Prominent
+among these was _P. decora_, with bluish foliage handsomely displayed,
+the whole plant looking strong and neat and well-dressed. Others whose
+flower-colour I cannot commend, but that seemed worth growing on account
+of their rich masses of handsome foliage, are _P. triternata_ and _P.
+Broteri_. Though small in size, the light red flower of _P. lobata_ is
+of a beautiful colour. _P. tenuifolia_, in both single and double form,
+is an old garden favourite. _P. Wittmanniana_, with its yellow-green
+leaves and tender yellow flower, is a gem; but it is rather rare, and
+probably uncertain, for mine, alas! had no sooner grown into a fine
+clump than it suddenly died.
+
+All Paeonies are strong feeders. Their beds should be deeply and richly
+prepared, and in later years they are grateful for liberal gifts of
+manure, both as surface dressings and waterings.
+
+Friends often ask me vaguely about Paeonies, and when I say, "What kind
+of Paeonies?" they have not the least idea.
+
+Broadly, and for garden purposes, one may put them into three classes--
+
+1. Tree Paeonies (_P. moutan_), shrubby, flowering in May.
+
+2. Chinese Paeonies (_P. albiflora_), herbaceous, flowering in June.
+
+3. Old garden Paeonies (_P. officinalis_), herbaceous, including some
+other herbaceous species.
+
+I find it convenient to grow Paeony species and Caulescent (Lent)
+Hellebores together. They are in a wide border on the north side of the
+high wall and partly shaded by it. They are agreed in their liking for
+deeply-worked ground with an admixture of loam and lime, for shelter,
+and for rich feeding; and the Paeony clumps, set, as it were, in picture
+frames of the lower-growing Hellebores, are seen to all the more
+advantage.
+
+[Illustration: FREE CLUSTER-ROSE AS STANDARD IN A COTTAGE GARDEN.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+JUNE
+
+The gladness of June -- The time of Roses -- Garden Roses -- Reine
+Blanche -- The old white Rose -- Old garden Roses as standards --
+Climbing and rambling Roses -- Scotch Briars -- Hybrid Perpetuals a
+difficulty -- Tea Roses -- Pruning -- Sweet Peas, autumn sown --
+Elder-trees -- Virginian Cowslip -- Dividing spring-blooming plants --
+Two best Mulleins -- White French Willow -- Bracken.
+
+
+What is one to say about June--the time of perfect young summer, the
+fulfilment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign
+to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade? For my own
+part I wander up into the wood and say, "June is here--June is here;
+thank God for lovely June!" The soft cooing of the wood-dove, the glad
+song of many birds, the flitting of butterflies, the hum of all the
+little winged people among the branches, the sweet earth-scents--all
+seem to say the same, with an endless reiteration, never wearying
+because so gladsome. It is the offering of the Hymn of Praise! The
+lizards run in and out of the heathy tufts in the hot sunshine, and as
+the long day darkens the night-jar trolls out his strange song, so
+welcome because it is the prelude to the perfect summer night; here and
+there a glowworm shows its little lamp. June is here--June is here;
+thank God for lovely June!
+
+And June is the time of Roses. I have great delight in the best of the
+old garden Roses; the Provence (Cabbage Rose), sweetest of all sweets,
+and the Moss Rose, its crested variety; the early Damask, and its red
+and white striped kind; the old, nearly single, Reine Blanche. I do not
+know the origin of this charming Rose, but by its appearance it should
+be related to the Damask. A good many years ago I came upon it in a
+cottage garden in Sussex, and thought I had found a white Damask. The
+white is a creamy white, the outsides of the outer petals are stained
+with red, first showing clearly in the bud. The scent is delicate and
+delightful, with a faint suspicion of Magnolia. A few years ago this
+pretty old Rose found its way to one of the meetings of the Royal
+Horticultural Society, where it gained much praise. It was there that I
+recognised my old friend, and learned its name.
+
+I am fond of the old _Rosa alba_, both single and double, and its
+daughter, Maiden's Blush. How seldom one sees these Roses except in
+cottage gardens; but what good taste it shows on the cottager's part,
+for what Rose is so perfectly at home upon the modest little wayside
+porch?
+
+I have also learnt from cottage gardens how pretty are some of the old
+Roses grown as standards. The picture of my neighbour, Mrs. Edgeler,
+picking me a bunch from her bush, shows how freely they flower, and what
+fine standards they make. I have taken the hint, and have now some big
+round-headed standards, the heads a yard through, of the lovely Celeste
+and of Madame Plantier, that are worth looking at, though one of them is
+rather badly-shaped this year, for my handsome Jack (donkey) ate one
+side of it when he was waiting outside the studio door, while his
+cart-load of logs for the ingle fire was being unloaded.
+
+What a fine thing, among the cluster Roses, is the old Dundee Rambler! I
+trained one to go up a rather upright green Holly about twenty-five feet
+high, and now it has rushed up and tumbles out at the top and sides in
+masses of its pretty bloom. It is just as good grown as a "fountain,"
+giving it a free space where it can spread at will with no training or
+support whatever. These two ways I think are much the best for growing
+the free, rambling Roses. In the case of the fountain, the branches arch
+over and display the flowers to perfection; if you tie your Rose up to a
+tall post or train it over an arch or _pergola_, the birds flying
+overhead have the best of the show. The Garland Rose, another old sort,
+is just as suitable for this kind of growth as Dundee Rambler, and the
+individual flowers, of a tender blush-colour, changing to white, are
+even more delicate and pretty.
+
+The newer Crimson Rambler is a noble plant for the same use, in sunlight
+gorgeous of bloom, and always brilliant with its glossy bright-green
+foliage. Of the many good plants from Japan, this is the best that has
+reached us of late years. The Himalayan _Rosa Brunonii_ is loaded with
+its clusters of milk-white bloom, that are so perfectly in harmony with
+its very long, almost blue leaves. But of all the free-growing Roses,
+the most remarkable for rampant growth is _R. polyantha_. One of the
+bushes in this garden covers a space thirty-four feet across--more than
+a hundred feet round. It forms a great fountain-like mass, covered with
+myriads of its small white flowers, whose scent is carried a
+considerable distance. Directly the flower is over it throws up rods of
+young growth eighteen to twenty feet long; as they mature they arch
+over, and next year their many short lateral shoots will be smothered
+with bloom.
+
+Two other Roses of free growth are also great favourites--Madame Alfred
+Carriere, with long-stalked loose white flowers, and Emilie Plantier. I
+have them on an east fence, where they yield a large quantity of bloom
+for cutting; indeed, they have been so useful in this way that I have
+planted several more, but this time for training down to an oak trellis,
+like the one that supports the row of Bouquet d'Or, in order to bring
+the flowers within easier reach.
+
+Now we look for the bloom of the Burnet Rose (_Rosa spinosissima_), a
+lovely native plant, and its garden varieties, the Scotch Briars. The
+wild plant is widely distributed in England, though somewhat local.
+It grows on moors in Scotland, and on Beachy Head in Sussex, and near
+Tenby in South Wales, favouring wild places within smell of the sea. The
+rather dusky foliage sets off the lemon-white of the wild, and the clear
+white, pink, rose, and pale yellow of the double garden kinds. The hips
+are large and handsome, black and glossy, and the whole plant in late
+autumn assumes a fine bronzy colouring between ashy black and dusky red.
+Other small old garden Roses are coming into bloom. One of the most
+desirable, and very frequent in this district, is _Rosa lucida_, with
+red stems, highly-polished leaves, and single, fragrant flowers of pure
+rosy-pink colour. The leaves turn a brilliant yellow in autumn, and
+after they have fallen the bushes are still bright with the coloured
+stems and the large clusters of bright-red hips. It is the St. Mark's
+Rose of Venice, where it is usually in flower on St. Mark's Day, April
+25th. The double variety is the old _Rose d'amour_, now rare in gardens;
+its half-expanded bud is perhaps the most daintily beautiful thing that
+any Rose can show.
+
+[Illustration: DOUBLE WHITE SCOTCH BRIAR.]
+
+After many years of fruitless effort I have to allow that I am beaten in
+the attempt to grow the Grand Roses in the Hybrid Perpetual class. They
+plainly show their dislike to our dry hill, even when their beds are as
+well enriched as I can contrive or afford to make them. The rich loam
+that they love has to come many miles from the Weald by hilly roads in
+four-horse waggons, and the haulage is so costly that when it arrives I
+feel like distributing it with a spoon rather than with the spade.
+Moreover, even if a bed is filled with the precious loam, unless
+constantly watered the plants seem to feel and resent the two hundred
+feet of dry sand and rock that is under them before any moister stratum
+is reached.
+
+But the Tea Roses are more accommodating, and do fairly well, though, of
+course, not so well as in a stiffer soil. If I were planting again I
+should grow a still larger proportion of the kinds I have now found to
+do best. Far beyond all others is Madame Lambard, good alike early and
+late, and beautiful at all times. In this garden it yields quite three
+times as much bloom as any other; nothing else can approach it either
+for beauty or bounty. Viscountess Folkestone, not properly a Tea, but
+classed among Hybrid Noisettes, is also free and beautiful and
+long-enduring; and Papa Gontier, so like a deeper-coloured Lambard, is
+another favourite. Bouquet d'Or is here the strongest of the Dijon Teas.
+I grow it in several positions, but most conveniently on a strong bit of
+oak post and rail trellis, keeping the long growths tied down, and every
+two years cutting the oldest wood right out. It is well to remember that
+the tying or pegging down of Roses always makes them bloom better: every
+joint from end to end wants to make a good Rose; if the shoots are more
+upright, the blooming strength goes more to the top.
+
+The pruning of Tea Roses is quite different from the pruning required
+for the Hybrid Perpetuals. In these the last year's growth is cut
+back in March to within two to five eyes from where it leaves the main
+branch, according to the strength of the kind. This must not be done
+with the Teas. With these the oldest wood is cut right out from the
+base, and the blooming shoots left full length. But it is well, towards
+the end of July or beginning of August, to cut back the ends of soft
+summer shoots in order to give them a chance of ripening what is left.
+When an old Tea looks worn out, if cut right down in March or April it
+will often throw out vigorous young growth, and quite renew its life.
+
+[Illustration: PART OF A BUSH OF ROSA POLYANTHA.]
+
+[Illustration: GARLAND-ROSE, SHOWING NATURAL WAY OF GROWTH.]
+
+Within the first days of June we can generally pick some Sweet Peas from
+the rows sown in the second week of September. They are very much
+stronger than those sown in spring. By November they are four inches
+high, and seem to gain strength and sturdiness during the winter; for as
+soon as spring comes they shoot up with great vigour, and we know that
+the spray used to support them must be two feet higher than for those
+that are spring-sown. The flower-stalks are a foot long, and many have
+four flowers on a stalk. They are sown in shallow trenches; in spring
+they are earthed up very slightly, but still with a little trench at the
+base of the plants. A few doses of liquid manure are a great help when
+they are getting towards blooming strength.
+
+I am very fond of the Elder-tree. It is a sociable sort of thing; it
+seems to like to grow near human habitations. In my own mind it is
+certainly the tree most closely associated with the pretty old cottage
+and farm architecture of my part of the country; no bush or tree, not
+even the apple, seems to group so well or so closely with farm
+buildings. When I built a long thatched shed for the many needs of the
+garden, in the region of pits and frames, compost, rubbish and
+burn-heap, I planted Elders close to the end of the building and on one
+side of the yard. They look just right, and are, moreover, every year
+loaded with their useful fruit. This is ripe quite early in September,
+and is made into Elder wine, to be drunk hot in winter, a comfort by no
+means to be despised. My trees now give enough for my own wants, and
+there are generally a few acceptable bushels to spare for my cottage
+neighbours.
+
+About the middle of the month the Virginian Cowslip (_Mertensia
+virginica_) begins to turn yellow before dying down. Now is the time to
+look out for the seeds. A few ripen on the plant, but most of them fall
+while green, and then ripen in a few days while lying on the ground. I
+shake the seeds carefully out, and leave them lying round the
+parent-plant; a week later, when they will be ripe, they are lightly
+scratched into the ground. Some young plants of last year's growth I
+mark with a bit of stick, in case of wanting some later to plant
+elsewhere, or to send away; the plant dies away completely, leaving no
+trace above ground, so that if not marked it would be difficult to find
+what is wanted.
+
+[Illustration: LILAC MARIE LEGRAYE. (_See page 23._)]
+
+[Illustration: FLOWERING ELDER AND PATH FROM GARDEN TO COPSE.]
+
+This is also the time for pulling to pieces and replanting that good
+spring plant, the large variety of _Myosotis dissitiflora_; I always
+make sure of divisions, as seed does not come true. _Primula rosea_
+should also be divided now, and planted to grow on in a cool place, such
+as the foot of a north or east wall, or be put at once in its place in
+some cool, rather moist spot in the rock-garden. Two-year-old plants
+come up with thick clumps of matted root that is now useless. I cut off
+the whole mass of old root about an inch below the crown, when it can
+easily be divided into nice little bits for replanting. Many other
+spring-flowering plants may with advantage be divided now, such as
+Aubrietia, Arabis, Auricula, Tiarella, and Saxifrage.
+
+The young Primrose plants, sown in March, have been planted out in their
+special garden, and are looking well after some genial rain.
+
+The great branching Mullein, _Verbascum olympicum_, is just going out of
+bloom, after making a brilliant display for a fortnight. It is followed
+by the other of the most useful tall, yellow-flowered kinds, _V.
+phlomoides_. Both are seen at their best either quite early in the
+morning, or in the evening, or in half-shade, as, like all their kind,
+they do not expand their bloom in bright sunshine. Both are excellent
+plants on poor soils. _V. olympicum_, though classed as a biennial, does
+not come to flowering strength till it is three or four years old; but
+meanwhile the foliage is so handsome that even if there were no flower
+it would be a worthy garden plant. It does well in any waste spaces of
+poor soil, where, by having plants of all ages, there will be some to
+flower every year. The Mullein moth is sure to find them out, and it
+behoves the careful gardener to look for and destroy the caterpillars,
+or he may some day find, instead of his stately Mulleins, tall stems
+only clothed with unsightly grey rags. The caterpillars are easily
+caught when quite small or when rather large; but midway in their
+growth, when three-quarters of an inch long, they are wary, and at the
+approach of the avenging gardener they will give a sudden wriggling
+jump, and roll down into the lower depths of the large foliage, where
+they are difficult to find. But by going round the plants twice a day
+for about a week they can all be discovered.
+
+The white variety of the French Willow (_Epilobium angustifolium_) is a
+pretty plant in the edges of the copse, good both in sun and shade, and
+flourishing in any poor soil. In better ground it grows too rank,
+running quickly at the root and invading all its neighbours, so that it
+should be planted with great caution; but when grown on poor ground it
+flowers at from two feet to four feet high, and its whole aspect is
+improved by the proportional amount of flower becoming much larger.
+
+Towards the end of June the bracken that covers the greater part of the
+ground of the copse is in full beauty. No other manner of undergrowth
+gives to woodland in so great a degree the true forest-like character.
+This most ancient plant speaks of the old, untouched land of which large
+stretches still remain in the south of England--land too poor to have
+been worth cultivating, and that has therefore for centuries endured
+human contempt. In the early part of the present century, William
+Cobbett, in his delightful book, "Rural Rides," speaking of the heathy
+headlands and vast hollow of Hindhead, in Surrey, calls it "certainly
+the most villainous spot God ever made." This gives expression to his
+view, as farmer and political economist, of such places as were
+incapable of cultivation, and of the general feeling of the time about
+lonely roads in waste places, as the fields for the lawless labours of
+smuggler and highwayman. Now such tracts of natural wild beauty, clothed
+with stretches of Heath and Fern and Whortleberry, with beds of Sphagnum
+Moss, and little natural wild gardens of curious and beautiful
+sub-aquatic plants in the marshy hollows and undrained wastes, are
+treasured as such places deserve to be, especially when they still
+remain within fifty miles of a vast city. The height to which the
+bracken grows is a sure guide to the depth of soil. On the poorest,
+thinnest ground it only reaches a foot or two; but in hollow places
+where leaf-mould accumulates and surface soil has washed in and made a
+better depth, it grows from six feet to eight feet high, and when
+straggling up through bushes to get to the light a frond will sometimes
+measure as much as twelve feet. The old country people who have always
+lived on the same poor land say, "Where the farn grows tall anything
+will grow"; but that only means that there the ground is somewhat better
+and capable of cultivation, as its presence is a sure indication of a
+sandy soil. The timber-merchants are shy of buying oak trees felled from
+among it, the timber of trees grown on the wealden clay being so much
+better.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+JULY
+
+Scarcity of flowers -- Delphiniums -- Yuccas -- Cottager's way of
+protecting tender plants -- Alstroemerias -- Carnations -- Gypsophila --
+_Lilium giganteum_ -- Cutting fern-pegs.
+
+
+After the wealth of bloom of June, there appear to be but few flowers in
+the garden; there seems to be a time of comparative emptiness between
+the earlier flowers and those of autumn. It is true that in the early
+days of July we have Delphiniums, the grandest blues of the flower year.
+They are in two main groups in the flower border, one of them nearly all
+of the palest kind--not a solid clump, but with a thicker nucleus,
+thinning away for several yards right and left. Only white and
+pale-yellow flowers are grouped with this, and pale, fresh-looking
+foliage of maize and Funkia. The other group is at some distance, at the
+extreme western end. This is of the full and deeper blues, following a
+clump of Yuccas, and grouped about with things of important silvery
+foliage, such as Globe Artichoke and Silver Thistle (_Eryngium_). I have
+found it satisfactory to grow Delphiniums from seed, choosing the fine
+strong "Cantab" as the seed-parent, because the flowers were of a
+medium colour--scarcely so light as the name would imply--and because of
+its vigorous habit and well-shaped spike. It produced flowers of all
+shades of blue, and from these were derived nearly all I have in the
+border. I found them better for the purpose in many cases than the named
+kinds of which I had a fair collection.
+
+The seedlings were well grown for two years in nursery lines, worthless
+ones being taken out as soon as they showed their character. There is
+one common defect that I cannot endure--an interrupted spike, when the
+flowers, having filled a good bit of the spike, leave off, leaving a
+space of bare stem, and then go on again. If this habit proves to be
+persistent after the two years' trial, the plant is condemned. For my
+liking the spike must be well filled, but not overcrowded. Many of the
+show kinds are too full for beauty; the shape of the individual flower
+is lost. Some of the double ones are handsome, but in these the flower
+takes another shape, becoming more rosette-like, and thereby loses its
+original character. Some are of mixed colouring, a shade of lilac-pink
+sliding through pale blue. It is very beautiful in some cases, the
+respective tints remaining as clear as in an opal, but in many it only
+muddles the flower and makes it ineffective.
+
+Delphiniums are greedy feeders, and pay for rich cultivation and for
+liberal manurial mulches and waterings. In a hot summer, if not well
+cared for, they get stunted and are miserable objects, the flower
+distorted and cramped into a clumsy-looking, elongated mop-head.
+
+Though weak in growth the old _Delphinium Belladonna_ has so lovely a
+quality of colour that it is quite indispensable; the feeble stem should
+be carefully and unobtrusively staked for the better display of its
+incomparable blue.
+
+Some of the Yuccas will bloom before the end of the month. I have them
+in bold patches the whole fifteen-feet depth of the border at the
+extreme ends, and on each side of the pathway, where, passing from the
+lawn to the Paeony ground, it cuts across the border to go through the
+arched gateway. The kinds of Yucca are _gloriosa_, _recurva_,
+_flaccida_, and _filamentosa_. They are good to look at at all times of
+the year because of their grand strong foliage, and are the glory of the
+garden when in flower. One of the _gloriosa_ threw up a stout
+flower-spike in January. I had thought of protecting and roofing the
+spike, in the hope of carrying it safely through till spring, but
+meanwhile there came a damp day and a frosty night, and when I saw it
+again it was spoilt. The _Yucca filamentosa_ that I have I was told by a
+trusty botanist was the true plant, but rather tender, the one commonly
+called by that name being something else. I found it in a cottage
+garden, where I learnt a useful lesson in protecting plants, namely, the
+use of thickly-cut peaty sods. The goodwife had noticed that the peaty
+ground of the adjoining common, covered with heath and gorse and mossy
+grass, resisted frost much better than the garden or meadow, and it had
+been her practice for many years to get some thick dry sods with the
+heath left on and to pack them close round to protect tender plants. In
+this way she had preserved her Fuchsias of greenhouse kinds, and
+Calceolarias, and the Yucca in question.
+
+The most brilliant mass of flower in early July is given by the beds of
+_Alstroemeria aurantiaca_; of this we have three distinct varieties, all
+desirable. There is a four feet wide bed, some forty feet long, of the
+kind most common in gardens, and at a distance from it a group grown
+from selected seed of a paler colour; seedlings of this remain true to
+colour, or, as gardeners say, the variety is "fixed." The third sort is
+from a good old garden in Ireland, larger in every way than the type,
+with petals of great width, and extremely rich in colour. _Alstroemeria
+chilense_ is an equally good plant, and beds of it are beautiful in
+their varied colourings, all beautifully harmonious, and ranging through
+nearly the same tints as hardy Azaleas. These are the best of the
+Alstroemerias for ordinary garden culture; they do well in warm,
+sheltered places in the poorest soil, but the soil must be deep, for the
+bunches of tender, fleshy roots go far down. The roots are extremely
+brittle, and must be carefully handled. Alstroemerias are easily raised
+from seed, but when the seedlings are planted out the crowns should be
+quite four inches under the surface, and have a thick bed of leaves or
+some other mild mulching material over them in winter to protect them
+from frost, for they are Chilian plants, and demand and deserve a little
+surface comfort to carry them safely through the average English winter.
+
+Sea-holly (_Eryngium_) is another family of July-flowering plants that
+does well on poor, sandy soils that have been deeply stirred. Of these
+the more generally useful is _E. Oliverianum_, the _E. amethystinum_ of
+nurserymen, but so named in error, the true plant being rare and
+scarcely known in gardens. The whole plant has an admirable structure of
+a dry and nervous quality, with a metallic colouring and dull lustre
+that are in strong contrast to softer types of vegetation. The
+black-coated roots go down straight and deep, and enable it to withstand
+almost any drought. Equalling it in beauty is _E. giganteum_, the Silver
+Thistle, of the same metallic texture, but whitish and almost silvery.
+This is a biennial, and should be sown every year. A more lowly plant,
+but hardly less beautiful, is the wild Sea-holly of our coasts (_E.
+maritimum_), with leaves almost blue, and a handsome tuft of flower
+nearly matching them in colour. It occurs on wind-blown sandhills, but
+is worth a place in any garden. It comes up rather late, but endures,
+apparently unchanged, except for the bloom, throughout the late summer
+and autumn.
+
+But the flower of this month that has the firmest hold of the
+gardener's heart is the Carnation--the Clove Gilliflower of our
+ancestors. Why the good old name "Gilliflower" has gone out of use it is
+impossible to say, for certainly the popularity of the flower has never
+waned. Indeed, in the seventeenth century it seems that it was the
+best-loved flower of all in England; for John Parkinson, perhaps our
+earliest writer on garden plants, devotes to it a whole chapter in his
+"Paradisus Terrestris," a distinction shared by no other flower. He
+describes no less than fifty kinds, a few of which are still to be
+recognised, though some are lost. For instance, what has become of the
+"_great gray Hulo_" which he describes as a plant of the largest and
+strongest habit? The "gray" in this must refer to the colour of the
+leaf, as he says the flower is red; but there is also a variety called
+the "_blew Hulo_," with flowers of a "purplish murrey" colouring,
+answering to the slate colour that we know as of not unfrequent
+occurrence. The branch of the family that we still cultivate as "Painted
+Lady" is named by him "Dainty Lady," the present name being no doubt an
+accidental and regrettable corruption. But though some of the older
+sorts may be lost, we have such a wealth of good known kinds that this
+need hardly be a matter of regret. The old red Clove always holds its
+own for hardiness, beauty, and perfume; its newer and dwarfer variety,
+Paul Engleheart, is quite indispensable, while the beautiful
+salmon-coloured Raby is perhaps the most useful of all, with its hardy
+constitution and great quantity of bloom. But it is difficult to grow
+Carnations on our very poor soil; even when it is carefully prepared
+they still feel its starving and drying influence, and show their
+distaste by unusual shortness of life.
+
+_Gypsophila paniculata_ is one of the most useful plants of this time of
+year; its delicate masses of bloom are like clouds of flowery mist
+settled down upon the flower borders. Shooting up behind and among it is
+a tall, salmon-coloured Gladiolus, a telling contrast both in form and
+manner of inflorescence. Nothing in the garden has been more
+satisfactory and useful than a hedge of the white everlasting Pea. The
+thick, black roots that go down straight and deep have been undisturbed
+for some years, and the plants yield a harvest of strong white bloom for
+cutting that always seems inexhaustible. They are staked with stiff,
+branching spray, thrust into the ground diagonally, and not reaching up
+too high. This supports the heavy mass of growth without encumbering the
+upper blooming part.
+
+Hydrangeas are well in flower at the foot of a warm wall, and in the
+same position are spreading masses of the beautiful _Clematis
+Davidiana_, a herbaceous kind, with large, somewhat vine-like leaves,
+and flowers of a pale-blue colour of a delicate and uncommon quality.
+
+The blooming of the _Lilium giganteum_ is one of the great flower events
+of the year. It is planted in rather large straggling groups just within
+the fringe of the copse. In March the bulbs, which are only just
+underground, thrust their sharply-pointed bottle-green tips out of the
+earth. These soon expand into heart-shaped leaves, looking much like
+Arum foliage of the largest size, and of a bright-green colour and
+glistening surface. The groups are so placed that they never see the
+morning sun. They require a slight sheltering of fir-bough, or anything
+suitable, till the third week of May, to protect the young leaves from
+the late frosts. In June the flower-stem shoots up straight and tall,
+like a vigorous young green-stemmed tree. If the bulb is strong and the
+conditions suitable, it will attain a height of over eleven feet, but
+among the flowering bulbs of a group there are sure to be some of
+various heights from differently sized bulbs; those whose stature is
+about ten feet are perhaps the handsomest. The upper part of the stem
+bears the gracefully drooping great white Lily flowers, each bloom some
+ten inches long, greenish when in bud, but changing to white when fully
+developed. Inside each petal is a purplish-red stripe. In the evening
+the scent seems to pour out of the great white trumpets, and is almost
+overpowering, but gains a delicate quality by passing through the air,
+and at fifty yards away is like a faint waft of incense. In the evening
+light, when the sun is down, the great heads of white flower have a
+mysterious and impressive effect when seen at some distance through the
+wood, and by moonlight have a strangely weird dignity. The flowers only
+last a few days, but when they are over the beauty of the plant is by
+no means gone, for the handsome leaves remain in perfection till the
+autumn, while the growing seed-pods, rising into an erect position,
+become large and rather handsome objects. The rapidity and vigour of the
+four months' growth from bulb to giant flowering plant is very
+remarkable. The stem is a hollow, fleshy tube, three inches in diameter
+at the base, and the large radiating roots are like those of a tree. The
+original bulb is, of course, gone, but when the plants that have
+flowered are taken up at the end of November, offsets are found
+clustered round the root; these are carefully detached and replanted.
+The great growth of these Lilies could not be expected to come to
+perfection in our very poor, shallow soil, for doubtless in their
+mountain home in the Eastern Himalayas they grow in deep beds of cool
+vegetable earth. Here, therefore, their beds are deeply excavated, and
+filled to within a foot of the top with any of the vegetable rubbish of
+which only too much accumulates in the late autumn. Holes twelve feet
+across and three feet deep are convenient graves for frozen Dahlia-tops
+and half-hardy Annuals; a quantity of such material chopped up and
+tramped down close forms a cool subsoil that will comfort the Lily bulbs
+for many a year. The upper foot of soil is of good compost, and when the
+young bulbs are planted, the whole is covered with some inches of dead
+leaves that join in with the natural woodland carpet.
+
+[Illustration: THE GIANT LILY.]
+
+In the end of July we have some of the hottest of the summer days, only
+beginning to cool between six and seven in the evening. One or two
+evenings I go to the upper part of the wood to cut some fern-pegs for
+pegging Carnation layers, armed with fag-hook and knife and rubber, and
+a low rush-bottomed stool to sit on. The rubber is the stone for
+sharpening the knife--a long stone of coarse sandstone grit, such as is
+used for scythes. Whenever I am at work with a knife there is sure to be
+a rubber not far off, for a blunt knife I cannot endure, so there is a
+stone in each department of the garden sheds, and a whole series in the
+workshop, and one or two to spare to take on outside jobs. The Bracken
+has to be cut with a light hand, as the side-shoots that will make the
+hook of the peg are easily broken just at the important joint. The
+fronds are of all sizes, from two to eight feet long; but the best for
+pegs are the moderate-sized, that have not been weakened by growing too
+close together. Where they are crowded the main stalk is thick, but the
+side ones are thin and weak; whereas, where they get light and air the
+side branches are carried on stouter ribs, and make stronger and
+better-balanced pegs. The cut fern is lightly laid in a long ridge with
+the ends all one way, and the operator sits at the stalk end of the
+ridge, a nice cool shady place having been chosen. Four cuts with the
+knife make a peg, and each frond makes three pegs in about fifteen
+seconds. With the fronds laid straight and handy it goes almost
+rhythmically, then each group of three pegs is thrown into the basket,
+where they clash on to the others with a hard ringing sound. In about
+four days the pegs dry to a surprising hardness; they are better than
+wooden ones, and easier and quicker to make.
+
+People who are not used to handling Bracken should be careful how they
+cut a frond with a knife; they are almost sure to get a nasty little cut
+on the second joint of the first finger of the right hand--not from the
+knife, but from the cut edge of the fern. The stalk has a silicious
+coating, that leaves a sharp edge like a thin flake of glass when cut
+diagonally with a sharp knife; they should also beware how they pick or
+pull off a mature frond, for even if the part of the stalk laid hold of
+is bruised and twisted, some of the glassy structure holds together and
+is likely to wound the hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AUGUST
+
+Leycesteria -- Early recollections -- Bank of choice shrubs -- Bank of
+Briar Roses -- Hollyhocks -- Lavender -- Lilies -- Bracken and Heaths --
+The Fern-walk -- Late-blooming rock-plants -- Autumn flowers -- Tea
+Roses -- Fruit of _Rosa rugosa_ -- Fungi -- Chantarelle.
+
+
+_Leycesteria formosa_ is a soft-wooded shrub, whose beauty, without
+being showy, is full of charm and refinement. I remember delighting in
+it in the shrub-wilderness of the old home, where I first learnt to know
+and love many a good bush and tree long before I knew their names. There
+were towering Rhododendrons (all _ponticum_) and Ailanthus and Hickory
+and Magnolias, and then Spiraea and Snowball tree and tall yellow Azalea,
+and Buttercup bush and shrubby Andromedas, and in some of the clumps
+tall Cypresses and the pretty cut-leaved Beech, and in the edges of
+others some of the good old garden Roses, double Cinnamon and _R.
+lucida_, and Damask and Provence, Moss-rose and Sweetbriar, besides
+tall-grown Lilacs and Syringa. It was all rather overgrown, and perhaps
+all the prettier, and some of the wide grassy ways were quite shady in
+summer. And I look back across the years and think what a fine
+lesson-book it was to a rather solitary child; and when I came to plant
+my own shrub clump I thought I would put rather near together some of
+the old favourites, so here again we come back to Leycesteria, put
+rather in a place of honour, and near it Buttercup bush and Andromeda
+and Magnolias and old garden Roses.
+
+[Illustration: CISTUS FLORENTINUS.]
+
+[Illustration: THE GREAT ASPHODEL.]
+
+I had no space for a shrub wilderness, but have made a large clump for
+just the things I like best, whether new friends or old. It is a long,
+low bank, five or six paces wide, highest in the middle, where the
+rather taller things are planted. These are mostly Junipers and
+Magnolias; of the Magnolias, the kinds are _Soulangeana_, _conspicua_,
+_purpurea_, and _stellata_. One end of the clump is all of peat earth;
+here are Andromedas, Skimmeas, and on the cooler side the broad-leaved
+Gale, whose crushed leaves have almost the sweetness of Myrtle. One long
+side of the clump faces south-west, the better to suit the things that
+love the sun. At the farther end is a thrifty bush of _Styrax japonica_,
+which flowers well in hot summers, but another bush under a south wall
+flowers better. It must be a lovely shrub in the south of Europe and
+perhaps in Cornwall; here the year's growth is always cut at the tip,
+but it flowers well on the older wood, and its hanging clusters of white
+bloom are lovely. At its foot, on the sunny side, are low bushy plants
+of _Cistus florentinus_. I am told that this specific name is not right;
+but the plant so commonly goes by it that it serves the purpose of
+popular identification. Then comes _Magnolia stellata_, now a
+perfectly-shaped bush five feet through, a sheet of sweet-scented bloom
+in April. Much too near it are two bushes of _Cistus ladaniferus_. They
+were put there as little plants to grow on for a year in the shelter and
+comfort of the warm bank, but were overlooked at the time they ought to
+have been shifted, and are now nearly five feet high, and are crowding
+the Magnolia. I cannot bear to take them away to waste, and they are
+much too large to transplant, so I am driving in some short stakes
+diagonally and tying them down by degrees, spreading out their branches
+between neighbouring plants. It is an upright-growing Cistus that would
+soon cover a tallish wall-space, but this time it must be content to
+grow horizontally, and I shall watch to see whether it will flower more
+freely, as so many things do when trained down.
+
+Next comes a patch of the handsome _Bambusa Ragamowski_, dwarf, but with
+strikingly-broad leaves of a bright yellow-green colour. It seems to be
+a slow grower, or more probably it is slow to grow at first; Bamboos
+have a good deal to do underground. It was planted six years ago, a nice
+little plant in a pot, and now is eighteen inches high and two feet
+across. Just beyond it is the Mastic bush (_Caryopteris mastacanthus_),
+a neat, grey-leaved small shrub, crowded in September with lavender-blue
+flowers, arranged in spikes something like a Veronica; the whole bush
+is aromatic, smelling strongly like highly-refined turpentine. Then
+comes _Xanthoceras sorbifolia_, a handsome bush from China, of rather
+recent introduction, with saw-edged pinnate leaves and white flowers
+earlier in the summer, but now forming its bunches of fruit that might
+easily be mistaken for walnuts with their green shucks on. Here a wide
+bushy growth of _Phlomis fruticosa_ lays out to the sun, covered in
+early summer with its stiff whorls of hooded yellow flowers--one of the
+best of plants for a sunny bank in full sun in a poor soil. A little
+farther along, and near the path, comes the neat little _Deutzia
+parviflora_ and another little shrub of fairy-like delicacy,
+_Philadelphus microphyllus_. Behind them is _Stephanandra flexuosa_,
+beautiful in foliage, and two good St. John's worts, _Hypericum aureum_
+and _H. Moserianum_, and again in front a Cistus of low, spreading
+growth, _C. halimifolius_, or something near it. One or two favourite
+kinds of Tree Paeonies, comfortably sheltered by Lavender bushes, fill up
+the other end of the clump next to the Andromedas. In all spare spaces
+on the sunny side of the shrub-clump is a carpeting of _Megasea
+ligulata_, a plant that looks well all the year round, and gives a
+quantity of precious flower for cutting in March and April.
+
+I was nearly forgetting _Pavia macrostachya_, now well established among
+the choice shrubs. It is like a bush Horse-chestnut, but more refined,
+the white spikes standing well up above the handsome leaves.
+
+On the cooler side of the clump is a longish planting of dwarf
+Andromeda, precious not only for its beauty of form and flower, but from
+the fine winter colouring of the leaves, and those two useful Spiraeas,
+_S. Thunbergi_, with its countless little starry flowers, and the double
+_prunifolia_, the neat leaves of whose long sprays turn nearly scarlet
+in autumn. Then there comes a rather long stretch of _Artemisia
+Stelleriana_, a white-leaved plant much like _Cineraria maritima_,
+answering just the same purpose, but perfectly hardy. It is so much like
+the silvery _Cineraria_ that it is difficult to remember that it prefers
+a cool and even partly-shaded place.
+
+Beyond the long ridge that forms the shrub-clump is another, parallel to
+it and only separated from it by a path, also in the form of a long low
+bank. On the crown of this is the double row of cob-nuts that forms one
+side of the nut-alley. It leaves a low sunny bank that I have given to
+various Briar Roses and one or two other low, bushy kinds. Here is the
+wild Burnet Rose, with its yellow-white single flowers and large black
+hips, and its garden varieties, the Scotch Briars, double white,
+flesh-coloured, pink, rose, and yellow, and the hybrid briar, Stanwell
+Perpetual. Here also is the fine hybrid of _Rosa rugosa_, Madame George
+Bruant, and the lovely double _Rosa lucida_, and one or two kinds of
+small bush Roses from out-of-the-way gardens, and two wild Roses that
+have for me a special interest, as I collected them from their rocky
+home in the island of Capri. One is a Sweetbriar, in all ways like the
+native one, except that the flowers are nearly white, and the hips are
+larger. Last year the bush was distinctly more showy than any other of
+its kind, on account of the size and unusual quantity of the fruit. The
+other is a form of _Rosa sempervirens_, with rather large white flowers
+faintly tinged with yellow.
+
+[Illustration: LAVENDER HEDGE AND STEPS TO THE LOFT.]
+
+[Illustration: HOLLYHOCK, PINK BEAUTY.]
+
+Hollyhocks have been fine, in spite of the disease, which may be partly
+checked by very liberal treatment. By far the most beautiful is one of a
+pure pink colour, with a wide outer frill. It came first from a cottage
+garden, and has always since been treasured. I call it Pink Beauty. The
+wide outer petal (a heresy to the florist) makes the flower infinitely
+more beautiful than the all-over full-double form that alone is esteemed
+on the show-table. I shall hope in time to come upon the same shape of
+flower in white, sulphur, rose-colour, and deep blood-crimson, the
+colours most worth having in Hollyhocks.
+
+Lavender has been unusually fine; to reap its fragrant harvest is one of
+the many joys of the flower year. If it is to be kept and dried, it
+should be cut when as yet only a few of the purple blooms are out on the
+spike; if left too late, the flower shakes off the stalk too readily.
+
+Some plantations of _Lilium Harrisi_ and _Lilium auratum_ have turned
+out well. Some of the _Harrisi_ were grouped among tufts of the
+bright-foliaged _Funkia grandiflora_ on the cool side of a Yew hedge.
+Just at the foot of the hedge is _Tropaeolum speciosum_, which runs up
+into it and flowers in graceful wreaths some feet above the ground. The
+masses of pure white lily and cool green foliage below are fine against
+the dark, solid greenery of the Yew, and the brilliant flowers above are
+like little jewels of flame. The Bermuda Lilies (_Harrisi_) are
+intergrouped with _L. speciosum_, which will follow them when their
+bloom is over. The _L. auratum_ were planted among groups of
+Rhododendrons; some of them are between tall Rhododendrons, and have
+large clumps of Lady Fern (_Filix foemina_) in front, but those that
+look best are between and among Bamboos (_B. Metake_); the heavy heads
+of flower borne on tall stems bend gracefully through the Bamboos, which
+just give them enough support.
+
+Here and there in the copse, among the thick masses of green Bracken, is
+a frond or two turning yellow. This always happens in the first or
+second week of August, though it is no indication of the approaching
+yellowing of the whole. But it is taken as a signal that the Fern is in
+full maturity, and a certain quantity is now cut to dry for protection
+and other winter uses. Dry Bracken lightly shaken over frames is a
+better protection than mats, and is almost as easily moved on and off.
+
+The Ling is now in full flower, and is more beautiful in the landscape
+than any of the garden Heaths; the relation of colouring, of greyish
+foliage and low-toned pink bloom with the dusky spaces of purplish-grey
+shadow, are a precious lesson to the colour-student.
+
+[Illustration: SOLOMON'S SEAL IN SPRING, IN THE UPPER PART OF THE
+FERN-WALK.]
+
+[Illustration: THE FERN-WALK IN AUGUST.]
+
+The fern-walk is at its best. It passes from the garden upwards to near
+the middle of the copse. The path, a wood-path of moss and grass and
+short-cut heath, is a little lower than the general level of the wood.
+The mossy bank, some nine feet wide, and originally cleared for the
+purpose, is planted with large groups of hardy Ferns, with a
+preponderance (due to preference) of Dilated Shield Fern and Lady Fern.
+Once or twice in the length of the bank are hollows, sinking at their
+lowest part to below the path-level, for _Osmunda_ and _Blechnum_. When
+rain is heavy enough to run down the path it finds its way into these
+hollow places.
+
+Among the groups of Fern are a few plants of true
+wood-character--_Linnaea_, _Trientalis_, _Goodyera_, and _Trillium_. At
+the back of the bank, and stretching away among the trees and underwood,
+are wide-spreading groups of Solomon's-seal and Wood-rush, joining in
+with the wild growth of Bracken and Bramble.
+
+Most of the Alpines and dwarf-growing plants, whose home is the
+rock-garden, bloom in May or June, but a few flower in early autumn. Of
+these one of the brightest is _Ruta patavina_, a dwarf plant with
+lemon-coloured flowers and a very neat habit of growth. It soon makes
+itself at home in a sunny bank in poor soil. _Pterocephalus parnassi_ is
+a dwarf Scabious, with small, grey foliage keeping close to the ground,
+and rather large flowers of a low-toned pink. The white Thyme is a
+capital plant, perfectly prostrate, and with leaves of a bright
+yellow-green, that with the white bloom give the plant a particularly
+fresh appearance. It looks at its best when trailing about little flat
+spaces between the neater of the hardy Ferns, and hanging over little
+rocky ledges. Somewhat farther back is the handsome dwarf _Platycodon
+Mariesi_, and behind it the taller Platycodons, among full-flowered
+bushes of _Olearia Haasti_.
+
+By the middle of August the garden assumes a character distinctly
+autumnal. Much of its beauty now depends on the many non-hardy plants,
+such as Gladiolus, Canna, and Dahlia, on Tritomas of doubtful hardiness,
+and on half-hardy annuals--Zinnia, Helichrysum, Sunflower, and French
+and African Marigold. Fine as are the newer forms of hybrid Gladiolus,
+the older strain of gandavensis hybrids are still the best as border
+flowers. In the large flower border, tall, well-shaped spikes of a good
+pink one look well shooting up through and between a wide-spreading
+patch of glaucous foliage of the smaller Yuccas, _Tritoma caulescens_,
+_Iris pallida_, and _Funkia Sieboldi_, while scarlet and salmon-coloured
+kinds are among groups of Paeonies that flowered in June, whose leaves
+are now taking a fine reddish colouring. Between these and the edge of
+the border is a straggling group some yards in length of the
+dark-foliaged _Heuchera Richardsoni_, that will hold its satin-surfaced
+leaves till the end of the year. Farther back in the border is a group
+of the scarlet-flowered Dahlia Fire King, and behind these, Dahlias Lady
+Ardilaun and Cochineal, of deeper scarlet colouring. The Dahlias are
+planted between groups of Oriental Poppy, that flower in May and then
+die away till late in autumn. Right and left of the scarlet group are
+Tritomas, intergrouped with Dahlias of moderate height, that have orange
+and flame-coloured flowers. This leads to some masses of flowers of
+strong yellow colouring; the old perennial Sunflower, in its tall single
+form, and the best variety of the old double one of moderate height, the
+useful _H. laetiflorus_ and the tall Miss Mellish, the giant form of
+_Harpalium rigidum_. _Rudbeckia Newmanni_ reflects the same strong colour
+in the front part of the border, and all spaces are filled with orange
+Zinnias and African Marigolds and yellow Helichrysum. As we pass along
+the border the colour changes to paler yellow by means of a pale
+perennial Sunflower and the sulphur-coloured annual kind, with Paris
+Daisies, _Oenothera Lamarkiana_ and _Verbascum phlomoides_. The two last
+were cut down to about four feet after their earliest bloom was over,
+and are now again full of profusely-flowered lateral growths. At the
+farther end of the border we come again to glaucous foliage and
+pale-pink flower of Gladiolus and Japan Anemone. It is important in such
+a border of rather large size, that can be seen from a good space of
+lawn, to keep the flowers in rather large masses of colour. No one who
+has ever done it, or seen it done, will go back to the old haphazard
+sprinkle of colouring without any thought of arrangement, such as is
+usually seen in a mixed border. There is a wall of sandstone backing the
+border, also planted in relation to the colour-massing in the front
+space. This gives a quiet background of handsome foliage, with always in
+the flower season some show of colour in one part or another of its
+length. Just now the most conspicuous of its clothing shrubs or of the
+somewhat tall growing flowers at its foot are a fine variety of
+_Bignonia radicans_, a hardy Fuchsia, the Claret Vine covering a good
+space, with its red-bronze leaves and clusters of blue-black grapes, the
+fine hybrid Crinums and _Clerodendron foetidum_.
+
+Tea Roses have been unusually lavish of autumn bloom, and some of the
+garden climbing Roses, hybrids of China and Noisette, have been of great
+beauty, both growing and as room decoration. Many of them flower in
+bunches at the end of the shoots; whole branches, cut nearly three feet
+long, make charming arrangements in tall glasses or high vases of
+Oriental china. Perhaps their great autumnal vigour is a reaction from
+the check they received in the earlier part of the year, when the bloom
+was almost a failure from the long drought and the accompanying attacks
+of blight and mildew. The great hips of the Japanese _Rosa rugosa_ are
+in perfection; they have every ornamental quality--size, form, colour,
+texture, and a delicate waxlike bloom; their pulp is thick and luscious,
+and makes an excellent jam.
+
+The quantity of fungous growth this year is quite remarkable. The late
+heavy rain coming rather suddenly on the well-warmed earth has no doubt
+brought about their unusual size and abundance; in some woodland places
+one can hardly walk without stepping upon them. Many spots in the copse
+are brilliant with large groups of the scarlet-capped Fly Agaric
+(_Amanita muscaria_). It comes out of the ground looking like a dark
+scarlet ball, generally flecked with raised whitish spots; it quickly
+rises on its white stalk, the ball changing to a brilliant flat disc,
+six or seven inches across, and lasting several days in beauty. But the
+most frequent fungus is the big brown _Boletus_, in size varying from a
+small bun to a dinner-plate. Some kinds are edible, but I have never
+been inclined to try them, being deterred by their coarse look and
+uninviting coat of slimy varnish. And why eat doubtful _Boletus_ when
+one can have the delicious Chantarelle (_Cantharellus cibarius_), also
+now at its best? In colour and smell it is like a ripe apricot,
+perfectly wholesome, and, when rightly cooked, most delicate in flavour
+and texture. It should be looked for in cool hollows in oak woods; when
+once found and its good qualities appreciated, it will never again be
+neglected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SEPTEMBER
+
+Sowing Sweet Peas -- Autumn-sown annuals -- Dahlias -- Worthless kinds
+-- Staking -- Planting the rock-garden -- Growing small plants in a wall
+-- The old wall -- Dry-walling -- How built -- How planted -- Hyssop --
+A destructive storm -- Berries of Water-elder -- Beginning ground-work.
+
+
+In the second week of September we sow Sweet Peas in shallow trenches.
+The flowers from these are larger and stronger and come in six weeks
+earlier than from those sown in the spring; they come too at a time when
+they are especially valuable for cutting. Many other hardy Annuals are
+best sown now. Some indeed, such as the lovely _Collinsia verna_ and the
+large white Iberis, only do well if autumn-sown. Among others, some of
+the most desirable are Nemophila, Platystemon, Love-in-a-Mist,
+Larkspurs, Pot Marigold, Virginian Stock, and the delightful Venus's
+Navel-wort (_Omphalodes linifolia_). I always think this daintily
+beautiful plant is undeservedly neglected, for how seldom one sees it.
+It is full of the most charming refinement, with its milk-white bloom
+and grey-blue leaf and neat habit of growth. Any one who has never
+before tried Annuals autumn-sown would be astonished at their vigour. A
+single plant of Nemophila will often cover a square yard with its
+beautiful blue bloom; and then, what a gain it is to have these pretty
+things in full strength in spring and early summer, instead of waiting
+to have them in a much poorer state later in the year, when other
+flowers are in plenty.
+
+Hardy Poppies should be sown even earlier; August is the best time.
+
+Dahlias are now at their full growth. To make a choice for one's own
+garden, one must see the whole plant growing. As with many another kind
+of flower, nothing is more misleading than the evidence of the
+show-table, for many that there look the best, and are indeed lovely in
+form and colour as individual blooms, come from plants that are of no
+garden value. For however charming in humanity is the virtue modesty,
+and however becoming is the unobtrusive bearing that gives evidence of
+its possession, it is quite misplaced in a Dahlia. Here it becomes a
+vice, for the Dahlia's first duty in life is to flaunt and to swagger
+and to carry gorgeous blooms well above its leaves, and on no account to
+hang its head. Some of the delicately-coloured kinds lately raised not
+only hang their heads, but also hide them away among masses of their
+coarse foliage, and are doubly frauds, looking everything that is
+desirable in the show, and proving worthless in the garden. It is true
+that there are ways of cutting out superfluous green stuff and thereby
+encouraging the blooms to show up, but at a busy season, when rank
+leafage grows fast, one does not want to be every other day tinkering at
+the Dahlias.
+
+Careful and strong staking they must always have, not forgetting one
+central stake to secure the main growth at first. It is best to drive
+this into the hole made for the plant before placing the root, to avoid
+the danger of sending the point of the stake through the tender tubers.
+Its height out of the ground should be about eighteen inches less than
+the expected stature of the plant. As the Dahlia grows, there should be
+at least three outer stakes at such distance from the middle one as may
+suit the bulk and habit of the plant; and it is a good plan to have
+wooden hoops to tie to these, so as to form a girdle round the whole
+plant, and for tying out the outer branches. The hoop should be only
+loosely fastened--best with roomy loops of osier, so that it may be
+easily shifted up with the growth of the plant. We make the hoops in the
+winter of long straight rent rods of Spanish Chestnut, bending them
+while green round a tub, and tying them with tarred twine or osier
+bands. They last several years. All this care in staking the Dahlias is
+labour well bestowed, for when autumn storms come the wind has such a
+power of wrenching and twisting, that unless the plant, now grown into a
+heavy mass of succulent vegetation, is braced by firm fixing at the
+sides, it is in danger of being broken off short just above the ground,
+where its stem has become almost woody, and therefore brittle.
+
+Now is the moment to get to work on the rock-garden; there is no time of
+year so precious for this work as September. Small things planted now,
+while the ground is still warm, grow at the root at once, and get both
+anchor-hold and feeding-hold of the ground before frost comes. Those
+that are planted later do not take hold, and every frost heaves them up,
+sometimes right out of the ground. Meanwhile those that have got a firm
+root-hold are growing steadily all the winter, underground if not above;
+and when the first spring warmth comes they can draw upon the reserve of
+strength they have been hoarding up, and make good growth at once.
+
+Except in the case of a rockery only a year old, there is sure to be
+some part that wants to be worked afresh, and I find it convenient to do
+about a third of the space every year. Many of the indispensable Alpines
+and rock-plants of lowly growth increase at a great rate, some spreading
+over much more than their due space, the very reason of this
+quick-spreading habit being that they are travelling to fresh pasture;
+many of them prove it clearly by dying away in the middle of the patch,
+and only showing vigorous vitality at the edges.
+
+Such plants as _Silene alpestris_, _Hutchinsia alpina_, _Pterocephalus_,
+the dwarf alpine kinds of _Achillea_ and _Artemisia_, _Veronica_ and
+_Linaria_, and the mossy Saxifrages, in my soil want transplanting every
+two years, and the silvery Saxifrages every three years. As in much
+else, one must watch what happens in one's own garden. We practical
+gardeners have no absolute knowledge of the constitution of the plant,
+still less of the chemistry of the soil, but by the constant exercise of
+watchful care and helpful sympathy we acquire a certain degree of
+instinctive knowledge, which is as valuable in its way, and probably
+more applicable to individual local conditions, than the tabulated
+formulas of more orthodox science.
+
+One of the best and simplest ways of growing rock-plants is in a loose
+wall. In many gardens an abrupt change of level makes a retaining wall
+necessary, and when I see this built in the usual way as a solid
+structure of brick and mortar--unless there be any special need of the
+solid wall--I always regret that it is not built as a home for
+rock-plants. An exposure to north or east and the cool backing of a mass
+of earth is just what most Alpines delight in. A dry wall, which means a
+wall without mortar, may be anything between a wall and a very steep
+rock-work, and may be built of brick or of any kind of local stone. I
+have built and planted a good many hundred yards of dry walling with my
+own hands, both at home and in other gardens, and can speak with some
+confidence both of the pleasure and interest of the actual making and
+planting, and of the satisfactory results that follow.
+
+The best example I have to show in my own garden is the so-called "Old
+Wall," before mentioned. It is the bounding and protecting fence of the
+Paeony ground on its northern side, and consists of a double dry wall
+with earth between. An old hedge bank that was to come away was not far
+off, within easy wheeling distance. So the wall was built up on each
+side, and as it grew, the earth from the hedge was barrowed in to fill
+up. A dry wall needs very little foundation; two thin courses
+underground are quite enough. The point of most structural importance is
+to keep the earth solidly trodden and rammed behind the stones of each
+course and throughout its bulk, and every two or three courses to lay
+some stones that are extra long front and back, to tie the wall well
+into the bank. A local sandstone is the walling material. In the pit it
+occurs in separate layers, with a few feet of hard sand between each.
+The lowest layer, sometimes thirty to forty feet down, is the best and
+thickest, but that is good building stone, and for dry walling we only
+want "tops" or "seconds," the later and younger formations of stone in
+the quarry. The very roughness and almost rotten state of much of this
+stone makes it all the more acceptable as nourishment and root-hold to
+the tiny plants that are to grow in its chinks, and that in a few months
+will change much of the rough rock-surface to green growth of delicate
+vegetation. Moreover, much of the soft sandy stone hardens by exposure
+to weather; and even if a stone or two crumbles right away in a few
+years' time, the rest will hold firmly, and the space left will make a
+little cave where some small fern will live happily.
+
+The wall is planted as it is built with hardy Ferns--_Blechnum_,
+Polypody, Hartstongue, _Adiantum_, _Ceterach_, _Asplenium_, and _Ruta
+muraria_. The last three like lime, so a barrow of old mortar-rubbish is
+at hand, and the joint where they are to be planted has a layer of their
+favourite soil. Each course is laid fairly level as to its front top
+edge, stones of about the same thickness going in course by course. The
+earth backing is then carefully rammed into the spaces at the uneven
+backs of the stones, and a thin layer of earth over the whole course,
+where the mortar would have been in a built wall, gives both a "bed" for
+the next row of stones and soil for the plants that are to grow in the
+joints.
+
+[Illustration: JACK. (_See page 79._)]
+
+[Illustration: THE "OLD WALL."]
+
+The face of the wall slopes backward on both sides, so that its whole
+thickness of five feet at the bottom draws in to four feet at the top.
+All the stones are laid at a right angle to the plane of the
+inclination--that is to say, each stone tips a little down at the back,
+and its front edge, instead of being upright, faces a little upward. It
+follows that every drop of gentle rain that falls on either side of the
+wall is carried into the joints, following the backward and downward
+pitch of the stones, and then into the earth behind them.
+
+The mass of earth in the middle of the wall gives abundant root-room for
+bushes, and is planted with bush Roses of three kinds, of which the
+largest mass is of _Rosa lucida_. Then there is a good stretch of
+Berberis; then Scotch Briars, and in one or two important places
+Junipers; then more Berberis, and Ribes, and the common Barberry, and
+neat bushes of _Olearia Haastii_.
+
+The wall was built seven years ago, and is now completely clothed. It
+gives me a garden on the top and a garden on each side, and though its
+own actual height is only 4-1/2 feet, yet the bushes on the top make it
+a sheltering hedge from seven to ten feet high. One small length of
+three or four yards of the top has been kept free of larger bushes, and
+is planted on its northern edge with a very neat and pretty dwarf kind
+of Lavender, while on the sunny side is a thriving patch of the hardy
+Cactus (_Opuntia Raffinesquiana_). Just here, in the narrow border at
+the foot of the wall, is a group of the beautiful _Crinum Powelli_,
+while a white Jasmine clothes the face of the wall right and left, and
+rambles into the Barberry bushes just beyond. It so happened that these
+things had been planted close together because the conditions of the
+place were likely to favour them, and not, as is my usual practice, with
+any intentional idea of harmonious grouping. I did not even remember
+that they all flower in July, and at nearly the same time; and one day
+seeing them all in bloom together, I was delighted to see the success of
+the chance arrangement, and how pretty it all was, for I should never
+have thought of grouping together pink and lavender, yellow and white.
+
+The northern face of the wall, beginning at its eastern end, is planted
+thus: For a length of ten or twelve paces there are Ferns, Polypody and
+Hartstongue, and a few _Adiantum nigrum_, with here and there a Welsh
+Poppy. There is a clump of the wild Stitchwort that came by itself, and
+is so pretty that I leave it. At the foot of the wall are the same, but
+more of the Hartstongue; and here it grows best, for not only is the
+place cooler, but I gave it some loamy soil, which it loves. Farther
+along the Hartstongue gives place to the wild Iris (_I. foetidissima_),
+a good long stretch of it. Nothing, to my mind, looks better than these
+two plants at the base of a wall on the cool side. In the upper part of
+the wall are various Ferns, and that interesting plant, Wall Pennywort
+(_Cotyledon umbilicus_). It is a native plant, but not found in this
+neighbourhood; I brought it from Cornwall, where it is so plentiful in
+the chinks of the granite stone-fences. It sows itself and grows afresh
+year after year, though I always fear to lose it in one of our dry
+summers. Next comes the common London Pride, which I think quite the
+most beautiful of the Saxifrages of this section. If it was a rare
+thing, what a fuss we should make about it! The place is a little dry
+for it, but all the same, it makes a handsome spreading tuft hanging
+over the face of the wall. When its pink cloud of bloom is at its best,
+I always think it the prettiest thing in the garden. Then there is the
+Yellow Everlasting (_Gnaphalium orientale_), a fine plant for the upper
+edge of the wall, and even better on the sunny side, and the white form
+of _Campanula caespitosa_, with its crowd of delicate little white
+bells rising in June, from the neatest foliage of tender but lively
+green. Then follow deep-hanging curtains of Yellow Alyssum and of hybrid
+rock Pinks. The older plants of Alyssum are nearly worn out, but there
+are plenty of promising young seedlings in the lower joints.
+
+[Illustration: ERINUS ALPINUS, CLOTHING STEPS IN ROCK-WALL.]
+
+Throughout the wall there are patches of Polypody Fern, one of the best
+of cool wall-plants, its creeping root-stock always feeling its way
+along the joints, and steadily furnishing the wall with more and more of
+its neat fronds; it is all the more valuable for being at its best in
+early winter, when so few ferns are to be seen. Every year, in some bare
+places, I sow a little seed of _Erinus alpinus_, always trying for
+places where it will follow some other kind of plant, such as a place
+where rock Pink or Alyssum has been. All plants are the better for this
+sort of change. In the seven years that the wall has stood, the stones
+have become weathered, and the greater part of the north side, wherever
+the stone work shows, is hoary with mosses, and looks as if it might
+have been standing for a hundred years.
+
+The sunny side is nearly clear of moss, and I have planted very few
+things in its face, because the narrow border at its foot is so precious
+for shrubs and plants that like a warm, sheltered place. Here are
+several Choisyas and Sweet Verbenas, also _Escallonia_, _Stuartia_, and
+_Styrax_, and a long straggling group of some very fine Pentstemons. In
+one space that was fairly clear I planted a bit of Hyssop, an old sweet
+herb whose scent I delight in; it grows into a thick bush-like plant
+full of purple flower in the late summer, when it attracts quantities of
+bumble-bees. It is a capital wall-plant, and has sown its own seed, till
+there is a large patch on the top and some in its face, and a
+broadly-spreading group in the border below. It is one of the plants
+that was used in the old Tudor gardens for edgings; the growth is close
+and woody at the base, and it easily bears clipping into shape.
+
+The fierce gales and heavy rains of the last days of September wrought
+sad havoc among the flowers. Dahlias were virtually wrecked. Though each
+plant had been tied to three stakes, their masses of heavy growth could
+not resist the wrenching and twisting action of the wind, and except in
+a few cases where they were well sheltered, their heads lay on the
+ground, the stems broken down at the last tie. If anything about a
+garden could be disheartening, it would be its aspect after such a storm
+of wind. Wall shrubs, only lately made safe, as we thought, have great
+gaps torn out of them, though tied with tarred string to strong iron
+staples, staples and all being wrenched out. Everything looks battered,
+and whipped, and ashamed; branches of trees and shrubs lie about far
+from their sources of origin; green leaves and little twigs are washed
+up into thick drifts; apples and quinces, that should have hung till
+mid-October, lie bruised and muddy under the trees. Newly-planted roses
+and hollies have a funnel-shaped hole worked in the ground at their
+base, showing the power of the wind to twist their heads, and giving
+warning of a corresponding disturbance of the tender roots. There is
+nothing to be done but to look round carefully and search out all
+disasters and repair them as well as may be, and to sweep up the
+wreckage and rubbish, and try to forget the rough weather, and enjoy the
+calm beauty of the better days that follow, and hope that it may be long
+before such another angry storm is sent. And indeed a few quiet days of
+sunshine and mild temperature work wonders. In a week one would hardly
+know that the garden had been so cruelly torn about. Fresh flowers take
+the place of bruised ones, and wholesome young growths prove the
+enduring vitality of vegetable life. Still we cannot help feeling,
+towards the end of September, that the flower year is nearly at an end,
+though the end is a gorgeous one, with its strong yellow masses of the
+later perennial Sunflowers and Marigolds, Goldenrod, and a few belated
+Gladioli; the brilliant foliage of Virginian Creepers, the leaf-painting
+of _Vitis Coignettii_, and the strong crimson of the Claret Vine.
+
+The Water-elder (_Viburnum opulus_) now makes a brave show in the edge
+of the copse. It is without doubt the most beautiful berry-bearing shrub
+of mid-September. The fruit hangs in ample clusters from the point of
+every branch and of every lateral twig, in colour like the brightest of
+red currants, but with a translucent lustre that gives each separate
+berry a much brighter look; the whole bush shows fine warm colouring,
+the leaves having turned to a rich red. Perhaps it is because it is a
+native that this grand shrub or small tree is generally neglected in
+gardens, and is almost unknown in nurserymen's catalogues. It is the
+parent of the well-known Guelder-Rose, which is merely its
+double-flowered form. But the double flower leaves no berry, its
+familiar white ball being formed of the sterile part of the flower only,
+and the foliage of the garden kind does not assume so bright an autumn
+colouring.
+
+The nights are growing chilly, with even a little frost, and the work
+for the coming season of dividing and transplanting hardy plants has
+already begun. Plans are being made for any improvements or alterations
+that involve ground work. Already we have been at work on some broad
+grass rides through the copse that were roughly levelled and laid with
+grass last winter. The turf has been raised and hollows filled in, grass
+seed sown in bare patches, and the whole beaten and rolled to a good
+surface, and the job put out of hand in good time before the leaves
+begin to fall.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+OCTOBER
+
+Michaelmas Daisies -- Arranging and staking -- Spindle-tree -- Autumn
+colour of Azaleas -- Quinces -- Medlars -- Advantage of early planting
+of shrubs -- Careful planting -- Pot-bound roots -- Cypress hedge --
+Planting in difficult places -- Hardy flower border -- Lifting Dahlias
+-- Dividing hardy plants -- Dividing tools -- Plants difficult to divide
+-- Periwinkles -- Sternbergia -- Czar Violets -- Deep cultivation for
+_Lilium giganteum_.
+
+
+The early days of October bring with them the best bloom of the
+Michaelmas Daisies, the many beautiful garden kinds of the perennial
+Asters. They have, as they well deserve to have, a garden to themselves.
+Passing along the wide path in front of the big flower border, and
+through the pergola that forms its continuation, with eye and brain full
+of rich, warm colouring of flower and leaf, it is a delightful surprise
+to pass through the pergola's last right-hand opening, and to come
+suddenly upon the Michaelmas Daisy garden in full beauty. Its clean,
+fresh, pure colouring, of pale and dark lilac, strong purple, and pure
+white, among masses of pale-green foliage, forms a contrast almost
+startling after the warm colouring of nearly everything else; and the
+sight of a region where the flowers are fresh and newly opened, and in
+glad spring-like profusion, when all else is on the verge of death and
+decay, gives an impression of satisfying refreshment that is hardly to
+be equalled throughout the year. Their special garden is a wide border
+on each side of a path, its length bounded on one side by a tall hedge
+of filberts, and on the other side by clumps of yew, holly, and other
+shrubs. It is so well sheltered that the strongest wind has its
+destructive power broken, and only reaches it as a refreshing
+tree-filtered breeze. The Michaelmas Daisies are replanted every year as
+soon as their bloom is over, the ground having been newly dug and
+manured. The old roots, which will have increased about fourfold, are
+pulled or chopped to pieces, nice bits with about five crowns being
+chosen for replanting; these are put in groups of three to five
+together. Tall-growing kinds like _Novi Belgi_ Robert Parker are kept
+rather towards the back, while those of delicate and graceful habit,
+such as _Cordifolius elegans_ and its good variety Diana are allowed to
+come forward. The fine dwarf _Aster amellus_ is used in rather large
+quantity, coming quite to the front in some places, and running in and
+out between the clumps of other kinds. Good-sized groups of _Pyrethrum
+uliginosum_ are given a place among the Asters, for though of quite
+another family, they are Daisies, and bloom at Michaelmas, and are
+admirable companions to the main occupants of the borders. The only
+other plants admitted are white Dahlias, the two differently striped
+varieties of _Eulalia japonica_, the fresh green foliage of Indian
+Corn, and the brilliant light-green leafage of _Funkia grandiflora_.
+Great attention is paid to staking the Asters. Nothing is more
+deplorable than to see a neglected, overgrown plant, at the last moment,
+when already half blown down, tied up in a tight bunch to one stake.
+When we are cutting underwood in the copse in the winter, special
+branching spray is looked out for our Michaelmas Daisies and cut about
+four feet or five feet long, with one main stem and from two to five
+branches. Towards the end of June and beginning of July these are thrust
+firmly into the ground among the plants, and the young growths are tied
+out so as to show to the best advantage. Good kinds of Michaelmas
+Daisies are now so numerous that in selecting those for the special
+garden it is well to avoid both the ones that bloom earliest and also
+the very latest, so that for about three weeks the borders may show a
+well-filled mass of bloom.
+
+[Illustration: BORDERS OF MICHAELMAS DAISIES.]
+
+The bracken in the copse stands dry and dead, but when leaves are
+fluttering down and the chilly days of mid-October are upon us, its
+warm, rusty colouring is certainly cheering; the green of the freshly
+grown mossy carpet below looks vividly bright by contrast. Some bushes
+of Spindle-tree (_Euonymus europaeus_) are loaded with their rosy
+seed-pods; some are already burst, and show the orange-scarlet seeds--an
+audacity of colouring that looks all the brighter for the even,
+lustreless green of the leaves and of the green-barked twigs and stems.
+
+The hardy Azaleas are now blazing masses of crimson, almost scarlet
+leaf; the old _A. pontica_, with its large foliage, is as bright as any.
+With them are grouped some of the North American Vacciniums and
+Andromedas, with leaves almost as bright. The ground between the groups
+of shrubs is knee-deep in heath. The rusty-coloured withered bloom of
+the wild heath on its purplish-grey masses and the surrounding banks of
+dead fern make a groundwork and background of excellent colour-harmony.
+
+How seldom does one see Quinces planted for ornament, and yet there is
+hardly any small tree that better deserves such treatment. Some Quinces
+planted about eight years ago are now perfect pictures, their lissome
+branches borne down with the load of great, deep-yellow fruit, and their
+leaves turning to a colour almost as rich and glowing. The old English
+rather round-fruited kind with the smooth skin is the best both for
+flavour and beauty--a mature tree without leaves in winter has a
+remarkably graceful, arching, almost weeping growth. The other kind is
+of a rather more rigid form, and though its woolly-coated, pear-shaped
+fruits are larger and strikingly handsome, the whole tree has a coarser
+look, and just lacks the attractive grace of the other. They will do
+fairly well almost anywhere, though they prefer a rich, loamy soil and a
+cool, damp, or even swampy place. The Medlar is another of the small
+fruiting trees that is more neglected than it should be, as it well
+deserves a place among ornamental shrubs. Here it is a precious thing
+in the region where garden melts into copse. The fruit-laden twigs are
+just now very attractive, and its handsome leaves can never be passed
+without admiration. Close to the Medlars is a happy intergrowth of the
+wild Guelder-Rose, still bearing its brilliant clusters, a
+strong-growing and far-clambering garden form of _Rosa arvensis_, full
+of red hips, Sweetbriar, and Holly--a happy tangle of red-fruited
+bushes, all looking as if they were trying to prove, in friendly
+emulation, which can make the bravest show of red-berried wild-flung
+wreath, or bending spray, or stately spire; while at their foot the
+bright colour is repeated by the bending, berried heads of the wild
+Iris, opening like fantastic dragons' mouths, and pouring out the red
+bead-like seeds upon the ground; and, as if to make the picture still
+more complete, the leaves of the wild Strawberry that cover the ground
+with a close carpet have also turned to a crimson, and here and there to
+an almost scarlet colour.
+
+During the year I make careful notes of any trees or shrubs that will be
+wanted, either to come from the nursery or to be transplanted within my
+own ground, so as to plant them as early as possible. Of the two
+extremes it is better to plant too early than too late. I would rather
+plant deciduous trees before the leaves are off than wait till after
+Christmas, but of all planting times the best is from the middle of
+October till the end of November, and the same time is the best for all
+hardy plants of large or moderate size.
+
+I have no patience with slovenly planting. I like to have the ground
+prepared some months in advance, and when the proper time comes, to do
+the actual planting as well as possible. The hole in the already
+prepared ground is taken out so that the tree shall stand exactly right
+for depth, though in this dry soil it is well to make the hole an inch
+or two deeper, in order to leave the tree standing in the centre of a
+shallow depression, to allow of a good watering now and then during the
+following summer. The hole must be made wide enough to give easy space
+for the most outward-reaching of the roots; they must be spread out on
+all sides, carefully combing them out with the fingers, so that they all
+lay out to the best advantage. Any roots that have been bruised, or have
+broken or jagged ends, are cut off with a sharp knife on the homeward
+side of the injury. Most gardeners when they plant, after the first
+spadeful or two has been thrown over the root, shake the bush with an up
+and down joggling movement. This is useful in the case of plants with a
+good lot of bushy root, such as Berberis, helping to get the grains of
+earth well in among the root; but in tree planting, where the roots are
+laid out flat, it is of course useless. In our light soil, the closer
+and firmer the earth is made round the newly-planted tree the better,
+and strong staking is most important, in order to save the newly-placed
+root from disturbance by dragging.
+
+Some trees and shrubs one can only get from nurseries in pots. This is
+usually the case with Ilex, Escallonia, and Cydonia. Such plants are
+sure to have the roots badly matted and twisted. The main root curls
+painfully round and round inside the imprisoning pot, but if it is a
+clever root it works its way out through the hole in the bottom, and
+even makes quite nice roots in the bed of ashes it has stood on. In this
+case, as these are probably its best roots, we do not attempt to pull it
+back through the hole, but break the pot to release it without hurt. If
+it is possible to straighten the pot-curled root, it is best to do so;
+in any case, the small fibrous ones can be laid out. Often the potful of
+roots is so hard and tight that it cannot be disentangled by the hand;
+then the only way is to soften it by gentle bumping on the bench, and
+then to disengage the roots by little careful digs all round with a
+blunt-pointed stick. If this is not done, and the plant is put in in its
+pot-bound state, it never gets on; it would be just as well to throw it
+away at once.
+
+Nine years ago a hedge of Lawson's Cypress was planted on one side of
+the kitchen garden. Three years later, when the trees had made some
+growth, I noticed in the case of three or four that they were quite bare
+of branches on one side all the way up for a width of about one-sixth of
+the circumference, leaving a smooth, straight, upright strip. Suspecting
+the cause, I had them up, and found in every case that the root just
+below the bare strip had been doubled under the stem, and had therefore
+been unable to do its share of the work. Nothing could have pointed out
+more clearly the defect in the planting.
+
+There are cases where ground cannot be prepared as one would wish, and
+where one has to get over the difficulty the best way one can. Such a
+case occurred when I had to plant some Yews and Savins right under a
+large Birch-tree. The Birch is one of several large ones that nearly
+surround the lawn. This one stands just within the end of a large
+shrub-clump, near the place of meeting of some paths with the grass and
+with some planting; here some further planting was wanted of dark-leaved
+evergreens. There is no tree more ground-robbing than a Birch, and under
+the tree in question the ground was dust-dry, extremely hard, and
+nothing but the poorest sand. Looking at the foot of a large tree one
+can always see which way the main roots go, and the only way to get down
+any depth is to go between these and not many feet away from the trunk.
+Farther away the roots spread out and would receive more injury. So the
+ground was got up the best way we could, and the Yews and Savins
+planted. Now, after some six years, they are healthy and dark-coloured,
+and have made good growth. But in such a place one cannot expect the
+original preparation of the ground, such as it was, to go for much. The
+year after planting they had some strong, lasting manure just pricked in
+over the roots--stuff from the shoeing-forge, full of hoof-parings.
+Hoof-parings are rich in ammonia, and decay slowly. Every other year
+they have either a repetition of this or some cooling cow manure. The
+big Birch no doubt gets some of it, though its hungriest roots are
+farther afield, but the rich colour of the shrubs shows that they are
+well nourished.
+
+As soon as may be in November the big hardy flower-border has to be
+thoroughly looked over. The first thing is to take away all "soft
+stuff." This includes all dead annuals and biennials and any tender
+things that have been put in for the summer, also Paris Daisies,
+Zinnias, French and African Marigolds, Helichrysums, Mulleins, and a few
+Geraniums. Then Dahlias are cut down. The waste stuff is laid in big
+heaps on the edge of the lawn just across the footpath, to be loaded
+into the donkey-cart and shot into some large holes that have been dug
+up in the wood, whose story will be told later.
+
+The Dahlias are now dug up from the border, and others collected from
+different parts of the garden. The labels are tied on to the short
+stumps that remain, and the roots are laid for a time on the floor of a
+shed. If the weather has been rainy just before taking them up, it is
+well to lay them upside down, so that any wet there may be about the
+bases of the large hollow stalks may drain out. They are left for
+perhaps a fortnight without shaking out the earth that holds between the
+tubers, so that they may be fairly dry before they are put away for the
+winter in a cellar.
+
+Then we go back to the flower border and dig out all the plants that
+have to be divided every year. It will also be the turn for some others
+that only want division every two or three or more years, as the case
+may be. First, out come all the perennial Sunflowers. These divide
+themselves into two classes; those whose roots make close clumpy masses,
+and those that throw out long stolons ending in a blunt snout, which is
+the growing crown for next year. To the first division belong the old
+double Sunflower (_Helianthus multiflorus_), of which I only keep the
+well-shaped variety Soleil d'Or, and the much taller large-flowered
+single kind, and a tall pale-yellow flowered one with a dark stem, whose
+name I do not know. It is not one of the kinds thought much of, and as
+usually grown has not much effect; but I plant it at the back and pull
+it down over other plants that have gone out of flower, so that instead
+of having only a few flowers at the top of a rather bare stem eight feet
+high, it is a spreading cloud of pale yellow bloom; the training down,
+as in the case of so many other plants, inducing it to throw up a short
+flowering stalk from the axil of every leaf along the stem. The kinds
+with the running roots are _Helianthus rigidus_, and its giant variety
+Miss Mellish, _H. decapetalus_ and _H. laetiflorus_. I do not know how it
+may be in other gardens, but in mine these must be replanted every year.
+
+Phloxes must also be taken up. They are always difficult here, unless
+the season is unusually rainy; in dry summers, even with mulching and
+watering, I cannot keep them from drying up. The outside pieces are cut
+off and the woody middle thrown away. It is surprising what a tiny bit
+of Phlox will make a strong flowering plant in one season. The kinds I
+like best are the pure whites and the salmon-reds; but two others that I
+find very pretty and useful are Eugenie, a good mauve, and Le Soleil, a
+strong pink, of a colour as near a really good pink as in any Phlox I
+know. Both of these have a neat and rather short habit of growth. I do
+not have many Michaelmas Daisies in the flower border, only some early
+ones that flower within September; of these there are the white-flowered
+_A. paniculatus_, _Shortii_, _acris_, and _amellus_. These of course
+come up, and any patches of Gladiolus are collected, to be dried for a
+time and then stored.
+
+The next thing is to look through the border for the plants that require
+occasional renewal. In the front I find that a longish patch of
+_Heuchera Richardsoni_ has about half the plants overgrown. These must
+come up, and are cut to pieces. It is not a nice plant to divide; it has
+strong middle crowns, and though there are many side ones, they are
+attached to the main ones too high up to have roots of their own; but I
+boldly slice down the main stocky stem with straight downward cuts, so
+as to give a piece of the thick stock to each side bit. I have done this
+both in winter and spring, and find the spring rather the best, if not
+followed by drought. Groups of _Anemone japonica_ and of _Polygonum
+compactum_ are spreading beyond bounds and must be reduced. Neither of
+these need be entirely taken up. Without going into further detail, it
+may be of use to note how often I find it advisable to lift and divide
+some of the more prominent hardy plants.
+
+Every year I divide Michaelmas Daisies, Goldenrod, _Helianthus_,
+_Phlox_, _Chrysanthemum maximum_, _Helenium pumilum_, _Pyrethrum
+uliginosum_, _Anthemis tinctoria_, _Monarda_, _Lychnis_, _Primula_,
+except _P. denticulata_, _rosea_, and _auricula_, which stand two years.
+
+Every two years, White Pinks, Cranesbills, _Spiraea_, _Aconitum_,
+_Gaillardia_, _Coreopsis_, _Chrysanthemum indicum_, _Galega_,
+_Doronicum_, _Nepeta_, _Geum aureum_, _Oenothera Youngi_, and _Oe.
+riparia_.
+
+Every three years, _Tritoma_, _Megasea_, _Centranthus_, _Vinca_, _Iris_,
+_Narcissus_.
+
+A plasterer's hammer is a tool that is very handy for dividing plants.
+It has a hammer on one side of the head, and a cutting blade like a
+small chopper on the other. With this and a cold chisel and a strong
+knife one can divide any roots in comfort. I never divide things by
+brutally chopping them across with a spade. Plants that have soft fleshy
+tubers like Dahlias and Paeonies want the cold chisel; it can be cleverly
+inserted among the crowns so that injury to the tubers is avoided, and
+it is equally useful in the case of some plants whose points of
+attachment are almost as hard as wire, like _Orobus vernus_, or as
+tough as a door-mat, like _Iris graminia_. The Michaelmas Daisies of
+the _Novae Angliae_ section make root tufts too close and hard to be cut
+with a knife, and here the chopper of the plasterer's hammer comes in.
+Where the crowns are closely crowded, as in this Aster, I find it best
+to chop at the bottom of the tuft, among the roots; when the chopper has
+cut about two-thirds through, the tuft can be separated with the hands,
+dividing naturally between the crowns, whereas if chopped from the top
+many crowns would have been spoilt.
+
+Tritomas want dividing with care; it always looks as if one could pull
+every crown apart, but there is a tender point at the "collar," where
+they easily break off short; with these also it is best to chop from
+below or to use the chisel, making the cut well down in the yellow rooty
+region. Veratrums divide much in the same way, wanting a careful cut low
+down, the points of their crowns being also very easy to break off. The
+Christmas Rose is one of the most awkward plants to divide successfully.
+It cannot be done in a hurry. The only safe way is to wash the clumps
+well out and look carefully for the points of attachment, and cut them
+either with knife or chisel, according to their position. In this case
+the chisel should be narrower and sharper. Three-year-old tufts of St.
+Bruno's Lily puzzled me at first. The rather fleshy roots are so tightly
+interlaced that cutting is out of the question; but I found out that if
+the tuft is held tight in the two hands, and the hands are worked
+opposite ways with a rotary motion of about a quarter of a circle, that
+they soon come apart without being hurt in the least. Delphiniums easily
+break off at the crown if they are broken up by hand, but the roots cut
+so easily that it ought not to be a difficulty.
+
+There are some plants in whose case one can never be sure whether they
+will divide well or not, such as Oriental Poppies and _Eryngium
+Oliverianum_. They behave in nearly the same way. Sometimes a Poppy or
+an Eryngium comes up with one thick root, impossible to divide, while
+the next door plant has a number of roots that are ready to drop apart
+like a bunch of Salsafy.
+
+Everlasting Peas do nearly the same. One may dig up two plants--own
+brothers of say seven years old--and a rare job it is, for they go
+straight down into the earth nearly a yard deep. One of them will have a
+straight black post of a root 2-1/2 inches thick without a break of any
+sort till it forks a foot underground, while the other will be a sort of
+loose rope of separate roots from half to three-quarters of an inch
+thick, that if carefully followed down and cleverly dissected where they
+join, will make strong plants at once. But the usual way to get young
+plants of Everlasting Pea is to look out in earliest spring for the many
+young growths that will be shooting, for these if taken off with a good
+bit of the white underground stem will root under a hand-light.
+
+Most of the Primrose tribe divide pleasantly and easily: the worst are
+the _auricula_ section; with these, for outdoor planting, one often has
+to slice a main root down to give a share of root to the offset.
+
+When one is digging up plants with running roots, such as Gaultheria,
+Honeysuckle, Polygonum, Scotch Briars, and many of the _Rubus_ tribe, or
+what is better, if one person is digging while another pulls up, it
+never does for the one who is pulling to give a steady haul; this is
+sure to end in breakage, whereas a root comes up willingly and unharmed
+in loosened ground to a succession of firm but gentle tugs, and one soon
+learns to suit the weight of the pulls to the strength of the plant, and
+to learn its breaking strain.
+
+Towards the end of October outdoor flowers in anything like quantity
+cannot be expected, and yet there are patches of bloom here and there in
+nearly every corner of the garden. The pretty Mediterranean Periwinkle
+(_Vinca acutiflora_) is in full bloom. As with many another southern
+plant that in its own home likes a cool and shady place, it prefers a
+sunny one in our latitude. The flowers are of a pale and delicate
+grey-blue colour, nearly as large as those of the common _Vinca major_,
+but they are borne more generously as to numbers on radical shoots that
+form thick, healthy-looking tufts of polished green foliage. It is not
+very common in gardens, but distinctly desirable.
+
+In the bulb-beds the bright-yellow _Sternbergia lutea_ is in flower. At
+first sight it looks something like a Crocus of unusually firm and
+solid substance; but it is an Amaryllis, and its pure and even yellow
+colouring is quite unlike that of any of the Crocuses. The numerous
+upright leaves are thick, deep green, and glossy. It flowers rather
+shyly in our poor soil, even in well-made beds, doing much better in
+chalky ground.
+
+Czar Violets are giving their fine and fragrant flowers on stalks nine
+inches long. To have them at their best they must be carefully
+cultivated and liberally enriched. No plants answer better to good
+treatment, or spoil more quickly by neglect. A miserable sight is a
+forgotten violet-bed where they have run together into a tight mat,
+giving only few and poor flowers. I have seen the owner of such a bed
+stand over it and blame the plants, when he should have laid the lash on
+his own shoulders. Violets must be replanted every year. When the last
+rush of bloom in March is over, the plants are pulled to pieces, and
+strong single crowns from the outer edges of the clumps, or from the
+later runners, are replanted in good, well-manured soil, in such a place
+as will be somewhat shaded from summer sun. There should be eighteen
+inches between each plant, and as they make their growth, all runners
+should be cut off until August. They are encouraged by liberal doses of
+liquid manure from time to time, and watered in case of drought; and the
+heart of the careful gardener is warmed and gratified when friends,
+seeing them at midsummer, say (as has more than once happened), "What a
+nice batch of young Hollyhocks!"
+
+In such a simple matter as the culture of this good hardy Violet, my
+garden, though it is full of limitations, and in all ways falls short of
+any worthy ideal, enables me here and there to point out something that
+is worth doing, and to lay stress on the fact that the things worth
+doing are worth taking trouble about. But it is a curious thing that
+many people, even among those who profess to know something about
+gardening, when I show them something fairly successful--the crowning
+reward of much care and labour--refuse to believe that any pains have
+been taken about it. They will ascribe it to chance, to the goodness of
+my soil, and even more commonly to some supposed occult influence of my
+own--to anything rather than to the plain fact that I love it well
+enough to give it plenty of care and labour. They assume a tone of
+complimentary banter, kindly meant no doubt, but to me rather
+distasteful, to this effect: "Oh yes, of course it will grow for you;
+anything will grow for you; you have only to look at a thing and it will
+grow." I have to pump up a laboured smile and accept the remark with
+what grace I can, as a necessary civility to the stranger that is within
+my gates, but it seems to me evident that those who say these things do
+not understand the love of a garden.
+
+I could not help rejoicing when such a visitor came to me one October. I
+had been saying how necessary good and deep cultivation was, especially
+in so very poor and shallow a soil as mine. Passing up through the copse
+where there were some tall stems of _Lilium giganteum_ bearing the great
+upturned pods of seed, my visitor stopped and said, "I don't believe a
+word about your poor soil--look at the growth of that Lily. Nothing
+could make that great stem ten feet high in a poor soil, and there it
+is, just stuck into the wood!" I said nothing, knowing that presently I
+could show a better answer than I could frame in words. A little farther
+up in the copse we came upon an excavation about twelve feet across and
+four deep, and by its side a formidable mound of sand, when my friend
+said, "Why are you making all this mess in your pretty wood? are you
+quarrying stone, or is it for the cellar of a building? and what on
+earth are you going to do with that great heap of sand? why, there must
+be a dozen loads of it." That was my moment of secret triumph, but I
+hope I bore it meekly as I answered, "I only wanted to plant a few more
+of those big Lilies, and you see in my soil they would not have a chance
+unless the ground was thoroughly prepared; look at the edge of the scarp
+and see how the solid yellow sand comes to within four inches of the
+top; so I have a big wide hole dug; and look, there is the donkey-cart
+coming with the first load of Dahlia-tops and soft plants that have been
+for the summer in the south border. There will be several of those
+little cartloads, each holding three barrowfuls. As it comes into the
+hole, the men will chop it with the spade and tread it down close,
+mixing in a little sand. This will make a nice cool, moist bottom of
+slowly-rotting vegetable matter. Some more of the same kind of waste
+will come from the kitchen garden--cabbage-stumps, bean-haulm, soft
+weeds that have been hoed up, and all the greenest stuff from the
+rubbish-heap. Every layer will be chopped and pounded, and tramped down
+so that there should be as little sinking as possible afterwards. By
+this time the hole will be filled to within a foot of the top; and now
+we must get together some better stuff--road-scrapings and trimmings
+mixed with some older rubbish-heap mould, and for the top of all, some
+of our precious loam, and the soil of an old hotbed and some
+well-decayed manure, all well mixed, and then we are ready for the
+Lilies. They are planted only just underground, and then the whole bed
+has a surfacing of dead leaves, which helps to keep down weeds, and also
+looks right with the surrounding wild ground. The remains of the heap of
+sand we must deal with how we can; but there are hollows here and there
+in the roadway and paths, and a place that can be levelled up in the
+rubbish-yard, and some kitchen-garden paths that will bear raising, and
+so by degrees it is disposed of."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NOVEMBER
+
+Giant Christmas Rose -- Hardy Chrysanthemums -- Sheltering tender shrubs
+-- Turfing by inoculation -- Transplanting large trees -- Sir Henry
+Steuart's experience early in the century -- Collecting fallen leaves --
+Preparing grubbing tools -- Butcher's Broom -- Alexandrian Laurel --
+Hollies and Birches -- A lesson in planting.
+
+
+The giant Christmas Rose (_Helleborus maximus_) is in full flower; it is
+earlier than the true Christmas Rose, being at its best by the middle of
+November. It is a large and massive flower, but compared with the later
+kinds has a rather coarse look. The bud and the back of the flower are
+rather heavily tinged with a dull pink, and it never has the pure-white
+colouring throughout of the later ones.
+
+I have taken some pains to get together some really hardy
+November-blooming Chrysanthemums. The best of all is a kind frequent in
+neighbouring cottage-gardens, and known hereabouts as Cottage Pink. I
+believe it is identical with Emperor of China, a very old sort that used
+to be frequent in greenhouse cultivation before it was supplanted by the
+many good kinds now grown. But its place is not indoors, but in the
+open garden; if against a south or west wall, so much the better.
+Perhaps one year in seven the bloom may be spoilt by such a severe frost
+as that of October 1895, but it will bear unharmed several degrees of
+frost and much rain. I know no Chrysanthemum of so true a pink colour,
+the colour deepening to almost crimson in the centre. After the first
+frost the foliage of this kind turns to a splendid colour, the green of
+the leaves giving place to a rich crimson that sometimes clouds the
+outer portion of the leaf, and often covers its whole expanse. The
+stiff, wholesome foliage adds much to the beauty of the outdoor kinds,
+contrasting most agreeably with the limp, mildewed leafage of those
+indoors. Following Cottage Pink is a fine pompone called Soleil d'Or, in
+colour the richest deep orange, with a still deeper and richer coloured
+centre. The beautiful crimson Julie Lagravere flowers at the same time.
+Both are nearly frost-proof, and true hardy November flowers.
+
+The first really frosty day we go to the upper part of the wood and cut
+out from among the many young Scotch Firs as many as we think will be
+wanted for sheltering plants and shrubs of doubtful hardiness. One
+section of the high wall at the back of the flower border is planted
+with rather tender things, so that the whole is covered with sheltering
+fir-boughs. Here are Loquat, Fuchsia, Pomegranate, _Edwardsia_,
+_Piptanthus_, and _Choisya_, and in the narrow border at the foot of the
+wall, _Crinum_, _Nandina_, _Clerodendron_, and _Hydrangea_. In the
+broad border in front of the wall nothing needs protection except
+Tritomas; these have cones of coal-ashes heaped over each plant or
+clump. The Crinums also have a few inches of ashes over them.
+
+Some large Hydrangeas in tubs are moved to a sheltered place and put
+close together, a mound of sand being shovelled up all round to nearly
+the depth of the tubs; then a wall is made of thatched hurdles, and dry
+fern is packed well in among the heads of the plants. They would be
+better in a frost-proof shed, but we have no such place to spare.
+
+The making of a lawn is a difficulty in our very poor sandy soil. In
+this rather thickly-populated country the lords of the manor had been so
+much pestered for grants of road-side turf, and the privilege when
+formerly given had been so much abused, that they have agreed together
+to refuse all applications. Opportunities of buying good turf do not
+often occur, and sowing is slow, and not satisfactory. I am told by a
+seedsman of the highest character that it is almost impossible to get
+grass seed clean and true to name from the ordinary sources; the leading
+men therefore have to grow their own.
+
+In my own case, having some acres of rough heath and copse where the
+wild grasses are of fine-leaved kinds, I made the lawn by inoculation.
+The ground was trenched and levelled, then well trodden and raked, and
+the surface stones collected. Tufts of the wild grass were then forked
+up, and were pulled into pieces about the size of the palm of one's
+hand, and laid down eight inches apart, and well rolled in. During the
+following summer we collected seed of the same grasses to sow early in
+spring in any patchy or bare places. One year after planting the patches
+had spread to double their size, and by the second year had nearly
+joined together. The grasses were of two kinds only, namely, Sheep's
+Fescue (_Festuca ovina_) and Crested Dog's-tail (_Agrostis canina_).
+They make a lawn of a quiet, low-toned colour, never of the bright green
+of the rather coarser grasses; but in this case I much prefer it; it
+goes better with the Heath and Fir and Bracken that belong to the place.
+In point of labour, a lawn made of these fine grasses has the great
+merit of only wanting mowing once in three weeks.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have never undertaken the transplanting of large trees, but there is
+no doubt that it may be done with success, and in laying out a new place
+where the site is bare, if suitable trees are to be had, it is a plan
+much to be recommended. It has often been done of late years, but until
+a friend drew my attention to an article in the _Quarterly Review_,
+dated March 1828, I had no idea that it had been practised on a large
+scale so early in the century. The article in question was a review of
+"The Planter's Guide," by Sir Henry Steuart, Bart., LL.D. (Edinburgh,
+1828.) It quoted the opinion and observation of a committee of
+gentlemen, among whom was Sir Walter Scott, who visited Allanton (Sir
+Henry Steuart's place) in September 1828, when the trees had been some
+years planted. They found them growing "with vigour and luxuriance, and
+in the most exposed situations making shoots of eighteen inches.... From
+the facts which they witnessed the committee reported it as their
+unanimous opinion that the art of transplantation, as practised by Sir
+Henry Steuart, is calculated to accelerate in an extraordinary degree
+the power of raising wood, whether for beauty or shelter."
+
+The reviewer then quotes the method of transplantation, describing the
+extreme care with which the roots are preserved, men with picks
+carefully trying round the ground beneath the outer circumference of the
+branches for the most outlying rootlets, and then gradually approaching
+the bole. The greatest care was taken not to injure any root or fibre,
+these as they were released from the earth being tied up, and finally
+the transplanting machine, consisting of a strong pole mounted on high
+wheels, was brought close to the trunk and attached to it, and the tree
+when lowered, carefully transported to its new home. Every layer of
+roots was then replanted with the utmost care, with delicate fingering
+and just sufficient ramming, and in the end the tree stood without any
+artificial support whatever, and in positions exposed to the fiercest
+gales.
+
+The average size of tree dealt with seems to have had a trunk about a
+foot in diameter, but some were removed with complete success whose
+trunks were two feet thick. In order that his trees might be the better
+balanced in shape, Sir Henry boldly departed from the older custom of
+replanting a tree in its original aspect, for he reversed the aspect, so
+that the more stunted and shorter-twigged weather side now became the
+lee side, and could grow more freely.
+
+He insists strongly on the wisdom of transplanting only well-weathered
+trees, and not those of tender constitution that had been sheltered by
+standing among other close growths, pointing out that these have a
+tenderer bark and taller top and roots less well able to bear the strain
+of wind and weather in the open.
+
+He reckons that a transplanted tree is in full new growth by the fourth
+or fifth year, and that an advantage equal to from thirty to forty
+years' growth is gained by the system. As for the expense of the work,
+Sir Henry estimated that his largest trees each cost from ten to
+thirteen shillings to take up, remove half a mile, and replant. In the
+case of large trees the ground that was to receive them was prepared a
+twelvemonth beforehand.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, in the third week of November, the most pressing work is the
+collecting of leaves for mulching and leaf-mould. The oaks have been
+late in shedding their leaves, and we have been waiting till they are
+down. Oak-leaves are the best, then hazel, elm, and Spanish chestnut.
+Birch and beech are not so good; beech-leaves especially take much too
+long to decay. This is, no doubt, the reason why nothing grows willingly
+under beeches. Horse and cart and three hands go out into the lanes for
+two or three days, and the loads that come home go three feet deep into
+the bottom of a range of pits. The leaves are trodden down close and
+covered with a layer of mould, in which winter salad stuff is
+immediately planted. The mass of leaves will soon begin to heat, and
+will give a pleasant bottom-heat throughout the winter. Other loads of
+leaves go into an open pen about ten feet square and five feet deep. Two
+such pens, made of stout oak post and rail and upright slabs, stand side
+by side in the garden yard. The one newly filled has just been emptied
+of its two-year-old leaf-mould, which has gone as a nourishing and
+protecting mulch over beds of Daffodils and choice bulbs and
+Alstroemerias, some being put aside in reserve for potting and various
+uses. The other pen remains full of the leaves of last year, slowly
+rotting into wholesome plant-food.
+
+With works of wood-cutting and stump-grubbing near at hand, we look over
+the tools and see that all are in readiness for winter work. Axes and
+hand-bills are ground, fag-hooks sharpened, picks and mattocks sent to
+the smithy to be drawn out, the big cross-cut saw fresh sharpened and
+set, and the hand-saws and frame-saws got ready. The rings of the bittle
+are tightened and wedged up, so that its heavy head may not split when
+the mighty blows, flung into the tool with a man's full strength,
+fall on the heads of the great iron wedges.
+
+[Illustration: PENS FOR STORING DEAD LEAVES.]
+
+[Illustration: CAREFUL WILD-GARDENING--WHITE FOXGLOVES AT THE EDGE OF
+THE FIR WOOD. (_See page 270._)]
+
+Some thinning of birch-trees has to be done in the lowest part of the
+copse, not far from the house. They are rather evenly distributed on the
+ground, and I wish to get them into groups by cutting away superfluous
+trees. On the neighbouring moorland and heathy uplands they are apt to
+grow naturally in groups, the individual trees generally bending outward
+towards the free, open space, the whole group taking a form that is
+graceful and highly pictorial. I hope to be able to cut out trees so as
+to leave the remainder standing in some such way. But as a tree once cut
+cannot be put up again, the condemned ones are marked with bands of
+white paper right round the trunks, so that they can be observed from
+all sides, thus to give a chance of reprieve to any tree that from any
+point of view may have pictorial value.
+
+Frequent in some woody districts in the south of England, though local,
+is the Butcher's Broom (_Ruscus aculeatus_). Its stiff green branches
+that rise straight from the root bear small, hard leaves, armed with a
+sharp spine at the end. The flower, which comes in early summer, is
+seated without stalk in the middle of the leaf, and is followed by a
+large red berry. In country places where it abounds, butchers use the
+twigs tied in bunches to brush the little chips of meat off their great
+chopping-blocks, that are made of solid sections of elm trees, standing
+three and a half feet high and about two and a half feet across. Its
+beautiful garden relative, the Alexandrian or Victory Laurel (_Ruscus
+racemosus_), is also now just at its best. Nothing makes a more
+beautiful wreath than two of its branches, suitably arched and simply
+bound together near the butts and free ends. It is not a laurel, but a
+_Ruscus_, the name laurel having probably grown on to it by old
+association with any evergreen suitable for a victor's wreath. It is a
+slow-growing plant, but in time makes handsome tufts of its graceful
+branches. Few plants are more exquisitely modelled, to use a term
+familiar to the world of fine art, or give an effect of more delicate
+and perfect finish. It is a valuable plant in a shady place in good,
+cool soil. Early in summer, when the young growths appear, the old, then
+turning rusty, should be cut away.
+
+No trees group together more beautifully than Hollies and Birches. One
+such happy mixture in one part of the copse suggested further plantings
+of Holly, Birches being already in abundance. Every year some more
+Hollies are planted; those put in nine years ago are now fifteen feet
+high, and are increasing fast. They are slow to begin growth after
+transplanting, perhaps because in our very light soil they cannot be
+moved with a "ball"; all the soil shakes away, and leaves the root
+naked; but after about three years, when the roots have got good hold
+and begun to ramble, they grow away well. The trunk of an old Holly has
+a smooth pale-grey bark, and sometimes a slight twist, that makes it
+look like the gigantic bone of some old-world monster. The leaves of
+some old trees, especially if growing in shade, change their shape,
+losing the side prickles and becoming longer and nearly flat and more of
+a dark bottle-green colour, while the lower branches and twigs, leafless
+except towards their ends, droop down in a graceful line that rises
+again a little at the tip.
+
+[Illustration: HOLLY STEMS IN AN OLD HEDGE-ROW.]
+
+The leaves are all down by the last week of November, and woodland
+assumes its winter aspect; perhaps one ought rather to say, some one of
+its infinite variety of aspects, for those who live in such country know
+how many are the winter moods of forest land, and how endless are its
+variations of atmospheric effect and pictorial beauty--variations much
+greater and more numerous than are possible in summer.
+
+With the wind in the south-west and soft rain about, the twigs of the
+birches look almost crimson, while the dead bracken at their foot,
+half-draggled and sodden with wet, is of a strong, dark rust colour. Now
+one sees the full value of the good evergreens, and, rambling through
+woodland, more especially of the Holly, whether in bush or tree form,
+with its masses of strong green colour, dark and yet never gloomy.
+Whether it is the high polish of the leaves, or the lively look of their
+wavy edges, with the short prickles set alternately up and down, or the
+brave way the tree has of shooting up among other thick growth, or its
+massive sturdiness on a bare hillside, one cannot say, but a Holly in
+early winter, even without berries, is always a cheering sight. John
+Evelyn is eloquent in his praise of this grand evergreen, and lays
+special emphasis on this quality of cheerfulness.
+
+Near my home is a little wild valley, whose planting, wholly done by
+Nature, I have all my life regarded with the most reverent admiration.
+
+The arable fields of an upland farm give place to hazel copses as the
+ground rises. Through one of these a deep narrow lane, cool and dusky in
+summer from its high steep banks and over-arching foliage, leads by a
+rather sudden turn into the lower end of the little valley. Its grassy
+bottom is only a few yards wide, and its sides rise steeply right and
+left. Looking upward through groups of wild bushes and small trees, one
+sees thickly-wooded ground on the higher levels. The soil is of the very
+poorest; ridges of pure yellow sand are at the mouths of the many
+rabbit-burrows. The grass is of the short fine kinds of the heathy
+uplands. Bracken grows low, only from one to two feet high, giving
+evidence of the poverty of the soil, and yet it seems able to grow in
+perfect beauty clumps of Juniper and Thorn and Holly, and Scotch Fir on
+the higher ground.
+
+On the steeply-rising banks are large groups of Juniper, some tall, some
+spreading, some laced and wreathed about with tangles of Honeysuckle,
+now in brown winter dress, and there are a few bushes of
+Spindle-tree, whose green stems and twigs look strangely green in
+winter. The Thorns stand some singly, some in close companionship,
+impenetrable masses of short-twigged prickly growth, with here and there
+a wild Rose shooting straight up through the crowded branches. One
+thinks how lovely it will be in early June, when the pink Rose-wreaths
+are tossing out of the foamy sea of white Thorn blossom. The Hollies are
+towering masses of health and vigour. Some of the groups of Thorn and
+Holly are intermingled; all show beautiful arrangements of form and
+colour, such as are never seen in planted places. The track in the
+narrow valley trends steadily upwards and bears a little to the right.
+High up on the left-hand side is an old wood of Scotch Fir. A few
+detached trees come half-way down the valley bank to meet the gnarled,
+moss-grown Thorns and the silver-green Junipers. As the way rises some
+Birches come in sight, also at home in the sandy soil. Their graceful,
+lissome spray moving to the wind looks active among the stiffer trees,
+and their white stems shine out in startling contrast to the other dusky
+foliage. So the narrow track leads on, showing the same kinds of tree
+and bush in endless variety of beautiful grouping, under the sombre
+half-light of the winter day. It is afternoon, and as one mounts higher
+a pale bar of yellow light gleams between the farther tree-stems, but
+all above is grey, with angry, blackish drifts of ragged wrack. Now the
+valley opens out to a nearly level space of rough grass, with grey
+tufts that will be pink bell-heather in summer, and upstanding clumps of
+sedge that tell of boggy places. In front and to the right are dense
+fir-woods. To the left is broken ground and a steep-sided hill, towards
+whose shoulder the track rises. Here are still the same kinds of trees,
+but on the open hillside they have quite a different effect. Now I look
+into the ruddy heads of the Thorns, bark and fruit both of rich warm
+colouring, and into the upper masses of the Hollies, also reddening into
+wealth of berry.
+
+[Illustration: WILD JUNIPERS.]
+
+Throughout the walk, pacing slowly but steadily for nearly an hour, only
+these few kinds of trees have been seen, Juniper, Holly, Thorn, Scotch
+Fir, and Birch (a few small Oaks excepted), and yet there has not been
+once the least feeling of monotony, nor, returning downward by the same
+path, could one wish anything to be altered or suppressed or differently
+grouped. And I have always had the same feeling about any quite wild
+stretch of forest land. Such a bit of wild forest as this small valley
+and the hilly land beyond are precious lessons in the best kind of tree
+and shrub planting. No artificial planting can ever equal that of
+Nature, but one may learn from it the great lesson of the importance of
+moderation and reserve, of simplicity of intention, and directness of
+purpose, and the inestimable value of the quality called "breadth" in
+painting. For planting ground is painting a landscape with living
+things; and as I hold that good gardening takes rank within the
+bounds of the fine arts, so I hold that to plant well needs an artist of
+no mean capacity. And his difficulties are not slight ones, for his
+living picture must be right from all points, and in all lights.
+
+[Illustration: WILD JUNIPERS.]
+
+No doubt the planting of a large space with a limited number of kinds of
+trees cannot be trusted to all hands, for in those of a person without
+taste or the more finely-trained perceptions the result would be very
+likely dull or even absurd. It is not the paint that make the picture,
+but the brain and heart and hand of the man who uses it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+DECEMBER
+
+The woodman at work -- Tree-cutting in frosty weather -- Preparing
+sticks and stakes -- Winter Jasmine -- Ferns in the wood-walk -- Winter
+colour of evergreen shrubs -- Copse-cutting -- Hoop-making -- Tools used
+-- Sizes of hoops -- Men camping out -- Thatching with hoop-chips -- The
+old thatcher's bill.
+
+
+It is good to watch a clever woodman and see how much he can do with his
+simple tools, and how easily one man alone can deal with heavy pieces of
+timber. An oak trunk, two feet or more thick, and weighing perhaps a
+ton, lies on the ground, the branches being already cut off. He has to
+cleave it into four, and to remove it to the side of a lane one hundred
+feet away. His tools are an axe and one iron wedge. The first step is
+the most difficult--to cut such a nick in the sawn surface of the butt
+of the trunk as will enable the wedge to stick in. He holds the wedge to
+the cut and hammers it gently with the back of the axe till it just
+holds, then he tries a moderate blow, and is quite prepared for what is
+almost sure to happen--the wedge springs out backwards; very likely it
+springs out for three or four trials, but at last the wedge bites and he
+can give it the dexterous, rightly-placed blows that slowly drive it
+in. Before the wedge is in half its length a creaking sound is heard;
+the fibres are beginning to tear, and a narrow rift shows on each side
+of the iron. A few more strokes and the sound of the rending fibres is
+louder and more continuous, with sudden cracking noises, that tell of
+the parting of larger bundles of fibres, that had held together till the
+tremendous rending power of the wedge at last burst them asunder. Now
+the man looks out a bit of strong branch about four inches thick, and
+with the tree-trunk as a block and the axe held short in one hand as a
+chopper, he makes a wooden wedge about twice the size of the iron one,
+and drives it into one of the openings at its side. For if you have only
+one iron wedge, and you drive it tight into your work, you can neither
+send it farther nor get it out, and you feel and look foolish. The
+wooden wedge driven in releases the iron one, which is sent in afresh
+against the side of the wedge of oak, the trunk meanwhile rending slowly
+apart with much grieving and complaining of the tearing fibres. As the
+rent opens the axe cuts across diagonal bundles of fibres that still
+hold tightly across the widening rift. And so the work goes on, the man
+unconsciously exercising his knowledge of his craft in placing and
+driving the wedges, the helpless wood groaning and creaking and finally
+falling apart as the last holding fibres are severed by the axe.
+Meanwhile the raw green wood gives off a delicious scent, sweet and
+sharp and refreshing, not unlike the smell of apples crushing in the
+cider-press.
+
+[Illustration: THE WOODMAN.]
+
+The woodman has still to rend the two halves of the trunk, but the work
+is not so heavy and goes more quickly. Now he has to shift them to the
+side of the rough track that serves as a road through the wood. They are
+so heavy that two men could barely lift them, and he is alone. He could
+move them with a lever, that he could cut out of a straight young tree,
+a foot or so at a time at each end, but it is a slow and clumsy way;
+besides, the wood is too much encumbered with undergrowth. So he cuts
+two short pieces from a straight bit of branch four inches or five
+inches thick, levers one of his heavy pieces so that one end points to
+the roadway, prises up this end and kicks one of his short pieces under
+it close to the end, settling it at right angles with gentle kicks. The
+other short piece is arranged in the same way, a little way beyond the
+middle of the length of quartered trunk. Now, standing behind it, he can
+run the length easily along on the two rollers, till the one nearest him
+is left behind; this one is then put under the front end of the weight,
+and so on till the road is reached.
+
+Trees that stand where paths are to come, or that for any reason have to
+be removed, root and all, are not felled with axe or saw, but are
+grubbed down. The earth is dug away next to the tree, gradually exposing
+the roots; these are cut through with axe or mattock close to the
+butt, and again about eighteen inches away, so that by degrees a deep
+trench, eighteen inches wide, is excavated round the butt. A rope is
+fastened at the right distance up the trunk, when, if the tree does not
+hold by a very strong tap-root, a succession of steady pulls will bring
+it down; the weight of the top thus helping to prise the heavy butt out
+of the ground. We come upon many old stumps of Scotch fir, the remains
+of the original wood; they make capital firewood, though some burn
+rather too fiercely, being full of turpentine. Many are still quite
+sound, though it must be six-and-twenty years since they were felled.
+They are very hard to grub, with their thick taproots and far-reaching
+laterals, and still tougher to split up, their fibres are so much
+twisted, and the dark-red heart-wood has become hardened till it rings
+to a blow almost like metal. But some, whose roots have rotted, come up
+more easily, and with very little digging may be levered out of the
+ground with a long iron stone-bar, such as they use in the neighbouring
+quarries, putting the point of the bar under the "stam," and having a
+log of wood for a hard fulcrum. Or a stout young stem of oak or chestnut
+is used for a lever, passing a chain under the stump and over the middle
+of the bar and prising upwards with the lever. "Stam" is the word always
+used by the men for any stump of a tree left in the ground.
+
+[Illustration: GRUBBING A TREE-STUMP.]
+
+[Illustration: FELLING AND GRUBBING TOOLS. (_See page 150._)]
+
+A spell of frosty days at the end of December puts a stop to all
+planting and ground work. Now we go into the copse and cut the trees
+that have been provisionally marked, judged, and condemned, with the
+object of leaving the remainder standing in graceful groups. The men
+wonder why I cut some of the trees that are best and straightest and
+have good tops, and leave those with leaning stems. Anything of seven
+inches or less diameter is felled with the axe, but thicker trees with
+the cross-cut saw. For these our most active fellow climbs up the tree
+with a rope, and makes it fast to the trunk a good way up, then two of
+them, kneeling, work the saw. When it has cut a third of the way
+through, the rope is pulled on the side opposite the cut to keep it open
+and let the saw work free. When still larger trees are sawn down this is
+done by driving in a wedge behind the saw, when the width of the
+saw-blade is rather more than buried in the tree. When the trunk is
+nearly sawn through, it wants care and judgment to see that the saw does
+not get pinched by the weight of the tree; the clumsy workman who fails
+to clear his saw gets laughed at, and probably damages his tool. Good
+straight trunks of oak and chestnut are put aside for special uses; the
+rest of the larger stuff is cut into cordwood lengths of four feet. The
+heaviest of these are split up into four pieces to make them easier to
+load and carry away, and eventually to saw up into firewood.
+
+The best of the birch tops are cut into pea-sticks, a clever, slanting
+cut with the hand-bill leaving them pointed and ready for use.
+Throughout the copse are "stools" of Spanish chestnut, cut about once in
+five years. From this we get good straight stakes for Dahlias and
+Hollyhocks, also beanpoles; while the rather straight-branched boughs
+are cut into branching sticks for Michaelmas Daisies, and special
+lengths are got ready for various kinds of plants--Chrysanthemums,
+Lilies, Paeonies and so on. To provide all this in winter, when other
+work is slack or impossible, is an important matter in the economy of a
+garden, for all gardeners know how distressing and harassing it is to
+find themselves without the right sort of sticks or stakes in summer,
+and what a long job it then seems to have to look them up and cut them,
+of indifferent quality, out of dry faggots. By the plan of preparing all
+in winter no precious time is lost, and a tidy withe-bound bundle of the
+right sort is always at hand. The rest of the rough spray and small
+branching stuff is made up into faggots to be chopped up for
+fire-lighting; the country folk still use the old word "bavin" for
+faggots. The middle-sized branches--anything between two inches and six
+inches in diameter--are what the woodmen call "top and lop"; these are
+also cut into convenient lengths, and are stacked in the barn, to be cut
+into billets for next year's fires in any wet or frosty weather, when
+outdoor work is at a standstill.
+
+What a precious winter flower is the yellow Jasmine (_Jasminum
+nudiflorum_). Though hard frost spoils the flowers then expanded, as
+soon as milder days come the hosts of buds that are awaiting them burst
+into bloom. Its growth is so free and rapid that one has no scruple
+about cutting it freely; and great branching sprays, cut a yard or more
+long, arranged with branches of Alexandrian Laurel or other suitable
+foliage--such as Andromeda or Gaultheria--are beautiful as room
+decoration.
+
+Christmas Roses keep on flowering bravely, in spite of our light soil
+and frequent summer drought, both being unfavourable conditions; but
+bravest of all is the blue Algerian Iris (_Iris stylosa_), flowering
+freely as it does, at the foot of a west wall, in all open weather from
+November till April.
+
+In the rock-garden at the edge of the copse the creeping evergreen
+_Polygala chamaebuxus_ is quite at home in beds of peat among mossy
+boulders. Where it has the ground to itself, this neat little shrub
+makes close tufts only four inches or five inches high, its wiry
+branches being closely set with neat, dark-green, box-like leaves;
+though where it has to struggle for life among other low shrubs, as may
+often be seen in the Alps, the branches elongate, and will run bare for
+two feet or three feet to get the leafy end to the light. Even now it is
+thickly set with buds and has a few expanded flowers. This bit of
+rock-garden is mostly planted with dwarf shrubs--_Skimmia_, Bog-myrtle,
+Alpine Rhododendrons, _Gaultheria_, and _Andromeda_, with drifts of
+hardy ferns between, and only a few "soft" plants. But of these, two are
+now conspicuously noticeable for foliage--the hardy Cyclamens and the
+blue Himalayan Poppy (_Meconopsis Wallichi_). Every winter I notice how
+bravely the pale woolly foliage of this plant bears up against the early
+winter's frost and wet.
+
+The wood-walk, whose sloping banks are planted with hardy ferns in large
+groups, shows how many of our common kinds are good plants for the first
+half of the winter. Now, only a week before Christmas, the male fern is
+still in handsome green masses; _Blechnum_ is still good, and common
+Polypody at its best. The noble fronds of the Dilated Shield-fern are
+still in fairly good order, and _Ceterach_ in rocky chinks is in fullest
+beauty. Beyond, in large groups, are prosperous-looking tufts of the
+Wood-rush (_Luzula sylvatica_); then there is wood as far as one can
+see, here mostly of the silver-stemmed Birch and rich green Holly, with
+the woodland carpet of dusky low-toned bramble and quiet dead leaf and
+brilliant moss.
+
+By the middle of December many of the evergreen shrubs that thrive in
+peat are in full beauty of foliage. _Andromeda Catesbaei_ is richly
+coloured with crimson clouds and splashes; Skimmias are at their best
+and freshest, their bright, light green, leathery foliage defying all
+rigours of temperature or weather. Pernettyas are clad in their
+strongest and deepest green leafage, and show a richness and depth of
+colour only surpassed by that of the yew hedges.
+
+Copse-cutting is one of the harvests of the year for labouring men, and
+all the more profitable that it can go on through frosty weather. A
+handy man can earn good wages at piece-work, and better still if he can
+cleave and shave hoops. Hoop-making is quite a large industry in these
+parts, employing many men from Michaelmas to March. They are
+barrel-hoops, made of straight poles of six years' growth. The wood used
+is Birch, Ash, Hazel and Spanish Chestnut. Hazel is the best, or as my
+friend in the business says, "Hazel, that's the master!" The growths of
+the copses are sold by auction in some near county town, as they stand,
+the buyer clearing them during the winter. They are cut every six years,
+and a good copse of Chestnut has been known to fetch L54 an acre.
+
+A good hoop-maker can earn from twenty to twenty-five shillings a week.
+He sets up his brake, while his mate, who will cleave the rods, cuts a
+post about three inches thick, and fixes it into the ground so that it
+stands about three feet high. To steady it he drives in another of
+rather curly shape by its side, so that the tops of the two are nearly
+even, but the foot of the curved spur is some nine inches away at the
+bottom, with its top pressing hard against the upright. To stiffen it
+still more he makes a long withe of a straight hazel rod, which he
+twists into a rope by holding the butt tightly under his left foot
+and twisting with both hands till the fibres are wrenched open and
+the withe is ready to spring back and wind upon itself. With this he
+binds his two posts together, so that they stand perfectly rigid. On
+this he cleaves the poles, beginning at the top. The tool is a small
+one-handed adze with a handle like a hammer. A rod is usually cleft in
+two, so that it is only shaved on one side; but sometimes a pole of
+Chestnut, a very quick-growing wood, is large enough to cleave into
+eight, and when the wood is very clean and straight they can sometimes
+get two lengths of fourteen feet out of a pole.
+
+[Illustration: HOOP-MAKING IN THE WOODS.]
+
+The brake is a strong flat-shaped post of oak set up in the ground to
+lean a little away from the workman. It stands five and a half feet out
+of the ground. A few inches from its upper end it has a shoulder cut in
+it which acts as the fulcrum for the cross-bar that supports the pole to
+be shaved, and that leans down towards the man. The relative position of
+the two parts of the brake reminds one of the mast and yard of a
+lateen-rigged boat. The bar is nicely balanced by having a hazel withe
+bound round a groove at its upper short end, about a foot beyond the
+fulcrum, while the other end of the withe is tied round a heavy bit of
+log or stump that hangs clear of the ground and just balances the bar,
+so that it see-saws easily. The cleft rod that is to be shaved lies
+along the bar, and an iron pin that passes through the head of the brake
+just above the point where the bar rides over its shoulder, nips the
+hoop as the weight of the stroke comes upon it; the least lifting of the
+bar releases the hoop, which is quickly shifted onwards for a new
+stroke. The shaving tool is a strong two-handled draw-knife, much like
+the tool used by wheelwrights. It is hard work, "wunnerful tryin' across
+the chest."
+
+The hoops are in several standard lengths, from fourteen to two and a
+half feet. The longest go to the West Indies for sugar hogsheads, and
+some of the next are for tacking round pipes of wine. The wine is in
+well-made iron-hooped barrels, but the wooden hoops are added to protect
+them from the jarring and bumping when rolled on board ship, and
+generally to save them during storage and transit. These hoops are in
+two sizes, called large and small pipes. A thirteen-foot size go to
+foreign countries for training vines on. A large quantity that measure
+five feet six inches, and called "long pinks," are for cement barrels. A
+length of seven feet six inches are used for herring barrels, and are
+called kilderkins, after the name of the size of tub. Smaller sizes go
+for gunpowder barrels, and for tacking round packing-cases and
+tea-chests.
+
+The men want to make all the time they can in the short winter daylight,
+and often the work is some miles from home, so if the weather is not
+very cold they make huts of the bundles of rods and chips, and sleep out
+on the job. I always admire the neatness with which the bundles are
+fastened up, and the strength of the withe-rope that binds them, for
+sixty hoops, or thirty pairs, as they call them, of fourteen feet,
+are a great weight to be kept together by four slight hazel bands.
+
+[Illustration: HOOP-SHAVING.]
+
+[Illustration: SHED-ROOF, THATCHED WITH HOOP-CHIP.]
+
+In this industry there is a useful by-product in the shavings, or chips
+as they call them. They are eighteen inches to two feet long, and are
+made up into small faggots or bundles and stacked up for six months to a
+year to dry, and then sell readily at twopence a bundle to cut up for
+fire-lighting. They also make a capital thatch for sheds, a thatch
+nearly a foot thick, warm in winter, and cool in summer, and durable,
+for if well made it will last for forty years. I got a clever old
+thatcher to make me a hoop-chip roof for the garden shed; it was a long
+job, and he took his time (although it was piece-work), preparing and
+placing each handful of chips as carefully as if he was making a wedding
+bouquet. He was one of the old sort--no scamping of work for him; his
+work was as good as he could make it, and it was his pride and delight.
+The roof was prepared with strong laths nailed horizontally across the
+rafters as if for tiling, but farther apart; and the chips, after a
+number of handfuls had been duly placed and carefully poked and patted
+into shape, were bound down to the laths with soft tarred cord guided by
+an immense iron needle. The thatching, as in all cases of roof-covering,
+begins at the eaves, so that each following layer laps over the last.
+Only the ridge has to be of straw, because straw can be bent over; the
+chips are too rigid. When the thatch is all in place the whole is
+"drove," that is, beaten up close with a wooden bat that strikes against
+the ends of the chips and drives them up close, jamming them tight into
+the fastening. After six months of drying summer weather he came and
+drove it all over again.
+
+Thatching is done by piece-work, and paid at so much a "square" of ten
+by ten feet. When I asked for his bill, the old man brought it made out
+on a hazel stick, in a manner either traditional, or of his own
+devising. This is how it runs, in notches about half an inch long, and
+dots dug with the point of the knife. It means, "To so much work done,
+L4, 5s. 0d."
+
+    IIXXX.I., IIXXXX.II[V] IIII[V]XX,IIXX
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+LARGE AND SMALL GARDENS
+
+A well done villa garden -- A small town garden -- Two delightful
+gardens of small size -- Twenty acres within the walls -- A large
+country house and its garden -- Terrace -- Lawn -- Parterre -- Free
+garden -- Kitchen garden -- Buildings -- Ornamental orchard --
+Instructive mixed gardens -- Mr. Wilson's at Wisley -- A window garden.
+
+
+The size of a garden has very little to do with its merit. It is merely
+an accident relating to the circumstances of the owner. It is the size
+of his heart and brain and goodwill that will make his garden either
+delightful or dull, as the case may be, and either leave it at the usual
+monotonous dead-level, or raise it, in whatever degree may be, towards
+that of a work of fine art. If a man knows much, it is more difficult
+for him to deal with a small space than a larger, for he will have to
+make the more sacrifice; but if he is wise he will at once make up his
+mind about what he will let go, and how he may best treat the restricted
+space. Some years ago I visited a small garden attached to a villa on
+the outskirts of a watering-place on the south coast. In ordinary hands
+it would have been a perfectly commonplace thing, with the usual weary
+mixture, and exhibiting the usual distressing symptoms that come in the
+train of the ministrations of the jobbing-gardener. In size it may have
+been a third of an acre, and it was one of the most interesting and
+enjoyable gardens I have ever seen, its master and mistress giving it
+daily care and devotion, and enjoying to the full its glad response of
+grateful growth. The master had built with his own hands, on one side
+where more privacy was wanted, high rugged walls, with spaces for many
+rock-loving plants, and had made the wall die away so cleverly into the
+rock-garden, that the whole thing looked like a garden founded on some
+ancient ruined structure. And it was all done with so much taste that
+there was nothing jarring or strained-looking, still less anything
+cockneyfied, but all easy and pleasant and pretty, while the happy look
+of the plants at once proclaimed his sympathy with them, and his
+comprehensive knowledge of their wants. In the same garden was a walled
+enclosure where Tree Paeonies and some of the hardier of the oriental
+Rhododendrons were thriving, and there were pretty spaces of lawn, and
+flower border, and shrub clump, alike beautiful and enjoyable, all
+within a small space, and yet not crowded--the garden of one who was a
+keen flower lover, as well as a world-known botanist.
+
+I am always thankful to have seen this garden, because it showed me, in
+a way that had never been so clearly brought home to me, how much may be
+done in a small space.
+
+Another and much smaller garden that I remember with pleasure was in a
+sort of yard among houses, in a country town. The house it belonged to,
+a rather high one, was on its east side, and halfway along on the south;
+the rest was bounded by a wall about ten feet high. Opposite the house
+the owner had built of rough blocks of sandstone what served as a
+workshop, about twelve feet long along the wall, and six feet wide
+within. A low archway of the same rough stone was the entrance, and
+immediately above it a lean-to roof sloped up to the top of the wall,
+which just here had been carried a little higher. The roof was of large
+flat sandstones, only slightly lapping over each other, with spaces and
+chinks where grew luxuriant masses of Polypody Fern. It was contrived
+with a cement bed, so that it was quite weather-tight, and the room was
+lighted by a skylight at one end that did not show from the garden. A
+small surface of lead-flat, on a level with the top of the wall, in one
+of the opposite angles, carried an old oil-jar, from which fell masses
+of gorgeous Tropaeolum, and the actual surface of the flat was a garden
+of Stonecrops. The rounded coping of the walls, and the joints in many
+places (for the wall was an old one), were gay with yellow Corydalis and
+Snapdragons and more Stonecrops. The little garden had a few pleasant
+flowering bushes, Ribes and Laurustinus, a Bay and an Almond tree. In
+the coolest and shadiest corner were a fern-grotto and a tiny tank. The
+rest of the garden, only a few yards across, was laid out with a square
+bed in the middle, and a little path round, then a three-feet-wide
+border next the wall, all edged with rather tall-grown Box. The middle
+bed had garden Roses and Carnations, and Mignonette and Stocks. All
+round were well-chosen plants and shrubs, looking well and happy, though
+in a confined and rather airless space. Every square foot had been made
+the most of with the utmost ingenuity, but the ingenuity was always
+directed by good taste, so that nothing looked crowded or out of place.
+
+And I think of two other gardens of restricted space, both long strips
+of ground walled at the sides, whose owners I am thankful to count among
+my friends--one in the favoured climate of the Isle of Wight, a little
+garden where I suppose there are more rare and beautiful plants brought
+together within a small space than perhaps in any other garden of the
+same size in England; the other in a cathedral town, now a memory only,
+for the master of what was one of the most beautiful gardens I have ever
+seen now lives elsewhere. The garden was long in shape, and divided
+about midway by a wall. The division next the house was a quiet lawn,
+with a mulberry tree and a few mounded borders near the sides that were
+unobstrusive, and in no way spoilt the quiet feeling of the lawn space.
+Then a doorway in the dividing wall led to a straight path with a double
+flower border. I suppose there was a vegetable garden behind the
+borders, but of that I have no recollection, only a vivid remembrance of
+that brilliantly beautiful mass of flowers. The picture was good enough
+as one went along, especially as at the end one came first within sound
+and then within sight of a rushing river, one of those swift, clear,
+shallow streams with stony bottom that the trout love; but it was ten
+times more beautiful on turning to go back, for there was the mass of
+flowers, and towering high above it the noble mass of the giant
+structure--one of the greatest and yet most graceful buildings that has
+ever been raised by man to the glory of God.
+
+It is true that it is not every one that has the advantage of a garden
+bounded by a river and a noble church, but even these advantages might
+have been lost by vulgar or unsuitable treatment of the garden. But the
+mind of the master was so entirely in sympathy with the place, that no
+one that had the privilege of seeing it could feel that it was otherwise
+than right and beautiful.
+
+Both these were the gardens of clergymen; indeed, some of our greatest
+gardeners are, and have been, within the ranks of the Church. For have
+we not a brilliantly-gifted dignitary whose loving praise of the Queen
+of flowers has become a classic? and have we not among churchmen the
+greatest grower of seedling Daffodils the world has yet seen, and other
+names of clergymen honourably associated with Roses and Auriculas and
+Tulips and other good flowers, and all greatly to their bettering? The
+conditions of the life of a parish priest would tend to make him a good
+gardener, for, while other men roam about, he stays mostly at home, and
+to live with one's garden is one of the best ways to ensure its welfare.
+And then, among the many anxieties and vexations and disappointments
+that must needs grieve the heart of the pastor of his people, his
+garden, with its wholesome labour and all its lessons of patience and
+trust and hopefulness, and its comforting power of solace, must be one
+of the best of medicines for the healing of his often sorrowing soul.
+
+I do not envy the owners of very large gardens. The garden should fit
+its master or his tastes just as his clothes do; it should be neither
+too large nor too small, but just comfortable. If the garden is larger
+than he can individually govern and plan and look after, then he is no
+longer its master but its slave, just as surely as the much-too-rich man
+is the slave and not the master of his superfluous wealth. And when I
+hear of the great place with a kitchen garden of twenty acres within the
+walls, my heart sinks as I think of the uncomfortable disproportion
+between the man and those immediately around him, and his vast output of
+edible vegetation, and I fall to wondering how much of it goes as it
+should go, or whether the greater part of it does not go dribbling away,
+leaking into unholy back-channels; and of how the looking after it must
+needs be subdivided; and of how many side-interests are likely to
+steal in, and altogether how great a burden of anxiety or matter of
+temptation it must give rise to. A grand truth is in the old farmer's
+saying, "The master's eye makes the pig fat;" but how can any one
+master's eye fat that vast pig of twenty acres, with all its minute and
+costly cultivation, its two or three crops a year off all ground given
+to soft vegetables, its stoves, greenhouses, orchid and orchard houses,
+its vineries, pineries, figgeries, and all manner of glass structures?
+
+But happily these monstrous gardens are but few--I only know of or have
+seen two, but I hope never to see another.
+
+Nothing is more satisfactory than to see the well-designed and
+well-organised garden of the large country house, whose master loves his
+garden, and has good taste and a reasonable amount of leisure.
+
+I think that the first thing in such a place is to have large unbroken
+lawn spaces--all the better if they are continuous, passing round the
+south and west sides of the house. I am supposing a house of the best
+class, but not necessarily of the largest size. Immediately adjoining
+the house, except for the few feet needed for a border for climbing
+plants, is a broad walk, dry and smooth, and perfectly level from end to
+end. This, in the case of many houses, and nearly always with good
+effect, is raised two or three feet above the garden ground, and if the
+architecture of the house demands it, has a retaining wall surmounted by
+a balustrade of masonry and wrought stone. Broad and shallow stone
+steps lead down to the turf both at the end of the walk and in the
+middle of the front of the house, the wider and shallower the better,
+and at the foot of the wall may be a narrow border for a few climbing
+plants that will here and there rise above the coping of the parapet. I
+do not think it desirable where there are stone balusters or other
+distinct architectural features to let them be smothered with climbing
+plants, but that there should be, say, a _Pyrus japonica_ or an
+Escallonia, and perhaps a white Jasmine, and on a larger space perhaps a
+cut-leaved or a Claret Vine. Some of the best effects of the kind I have
+seen were where the bush, being well established, rose straight out of
+the grass, the border being unnecessary except just at the beginning.
+
+The large lawn space I am supposing stretches away a good distance from
+the house, and is bounded on the south and west by fine trees; away
+beyond that is all wild wood. On summer afternoons the greater part of
+the lawn expanse is in cool shade, while winter sunsets show through the
+tree stems. Towards the south-east the wood would pass into shrub
+plantations, and farther still into garden and wild orchard (of which I
+shall have something to say presently). At this end of the lawn would be
+the brilliant parterre of bedded plants, seen both from the shaded lawn
+and from the terrace, which at this end forms part of its design. Beyond
+the parterre would be a distinct division from the farther garden,
+either of Yew or Box hedge, with bays for seats, or in the case of a
+change of level, of another terrace wall. The next space beyond would be
+the main garden for hardy plants, at its southern end leading into the
+wild orchard. This would be the place for the free garden or the reserve
+garden, or for any of the many delightful ways in which hardy flowers
+can be used; and if it happened by good fortune to have a stream or any
+means of having running water, the possibilities of beautiful gardening
+would be endless.
+
+[Illustration: GARLAND-ROSE WREATHING THE END OF A TERRACE WALL.]
+
+Beyond this again would come the kitchen garden, and after that the
+stables and the home farm. If the kitchen garden had a high wall, and
+might be entered on this side by handsome wrought-iron gates, I would
+approach it from the parterre by a broad grass walk bounded by large Bay
+trees at equal intervals to right and left. Through these to the right
+would be seen the free garden of hardy flowers.
+
+For the kitchen garden a space of two acres would serve a large country
+house with all that is usually grown within walls, but there should
+always be a good space outside for the rougher vegetables, as well as a
+roomy yard for compost, pits and frames, and rubbish.
+
+And here I wish to plead on behalf of the gardener that he should have
+all reasonable comforts and conveniences. Nothing is more frequent, even
+in good places, than to find the potting and tool sheds screwed away
+into some awkward corner, badly lighted, much too small, and altogether
+inadequate, and the pits and frames scattered about and difficult to get
+at. Nothing is more wasteful of time, labour, or temper. The working
+parts of a large garden form a complicated organisation, and if the
+parts of the mechanism do not fit and work well, and are not properly
+eased and oiled, still more, if any are missing, there must be
+disastrous friction and damage and loss of power. In designing garden
+buildings, I always strongly urge in connection with the heating system
+a warmed potting shed and a comfortable messroom for the men, and over
+this a perfectly dry loft for drying and storing such matters as shading
+material, nets, mats, ropes, and sacks. If this can be warmed, so much
+the better. There must also be a convenient and quite frost-proof place
+for winter storing of vegetable roots and such plants as Dahlias,
+Cannas, and Gladiolus; and also a well-lighted and warmed workshop for
+all the innumerable jobs put aside for wet weather, of which the chief
+will be repainting and glazing of lights, repairing implements, and
+grinding and setting tools. This shop should have a carpenter's bench
+and screw, and a smith's anvil, and a proper assortment of tools. Such
+arrangements, well planned and thought out, will save much time and loss
+of produce, besides helping to make all the people employed more
+comfortable and happy.
+
+I think that a garden should never be large enough to be tiring, that if
+a large space has to be dealt with, a great part had better be laid out
+in wood. Woodland is always charming and restful and enduringly
+beautiful, and then there is an intermediate kind of woodland that
+should be made more of--woodland of the orchard type. Why is the orchard
+put out of the way, as it generally is, in some remote region beyond the
+kitchen garden and stables? I should like the lawn, or the hardy flower
+garden, or both, to pass directly into it on one side, and to plant a
+space of several acres, not necessarily in the usual way, with orchard
+standards twenty-five feet apart in straight rows (though in many places
+the straight rows might be best), but to have groups and even groves of
+such things as Medlars and Quinces, Siberian and Chinese Crabs, Damsons,
+Prunes, Service trees, and Mountain Ash, besides Apples, Pears, and
+Cherries, in both standard and bush forms. Then alleys of Filbert and
+Cob-nut, and in the opener spaces tangles or brakes of the many
+beautiful bushy things allied to the Apple and Plum tribe--_Cydonia_ and
+_Prunus triloba_ and _Crataegus_ of many kinds (some of them are tall
+bushes or small trees with beautiful fruits); and the wild Blackthorn,
+which, though a plum, is so nearly related to pear that pears may be
+grafted on it. And then brakes of Blackberries, especially of the
+Parsley-leaved kind, so free of growth and so generous of fruit. How is
+it that this fine native plant is almost invariably sold in nurseries as
+an American bramble? If I am mistaken in this I should be glad to be
+corrected, but I believe it to be only the cut-leaved variety of the
+native _Rubus affinis_.
+
+I have tried the best of the American kinds, and with the exception of
+one year, when I had a few fine fruits from Kittatinny, they had been a
+failure, whereas invariably when people have told me that their American
+Blackberries have fruited well, I have found them to be the
+Parsley-leaved.
+
+Some members of the large Rose-Apple-Plum tribe grow to be large forest
+trees, and in my wild orchard they would go in the farther parts. The
+Bird-cherry (_Prunus padus_) grows into a tree of the largest size. A
+Mountain Ash will sometimes have a trunk two feet in diameter, and a
+head of a size to suit. The American kind, its near relation, but with
+larger leaves and still grander masses of berries, is a noble small
+tree; and the native white Beam should not be forgotten, and choice
+places should be given to Amelanchier and the lovely double Japan Apple
+(_Pyrus malus floribunda_). To give due space and effect to all these
+good things my orchard garden would run into a good many acres, but
+every year it would be growing into beauty and profit. The grass should
+be left rough, and plentifully planted with Daffodils, and with Cowslips
+if the soil is strong. The grass would be mown and made into hay in
+June, and perhaps mown once more towards the end of September. Under the
+nut-trees would be Primroses and the garden kinds of wood Hyacinths and
+Dogtooth Violets and Lily of the Valley, and perhaps Snowdrops, or any
+of the smaller bulbs that most commended themselves to the taste of the
+master.
+
+Such an orchard garden, well-composed and beautifully grouped, always
+with that indispensable quality of good "drawing," would not only be a
+source of unending pleasure to those who lived in the place, but a
+valuable lesson to all who saw it; for it would show the value of the
+simple and sensible ways of using a certain class of related trees and
+bushes, and of using them with a deliberate intention of making the best
+of them, instead of the usual meaningless-nohow way of planting. This,
+in nine cases out of ten, means either ignorance or carelessness, the
+planter not caring enough about the matter to take the trouble to find
+out what is best to be done, and being quite satisfied with a mixed lot
+of shrubs, as offered in nursery sales, or with the choice of the
+nurseryman. I do not presume to condemn all mixed planting, only stupid
+and ignorant mixed planting. It is not given to all people to take their
+pleasures alike; and I have in my mind four gardens, all of the highest
+interest, in which the planting is all mixed; but then the mixture is of
+admirable ingredients, collected and placed on account of individual
+merit, and a ramble round any one of these in company with its owner is
+a pleasure and a privilege that one cannot prize too highly. Where the
+garden is of such large extent that experimental planting is made with a
+good number of one good thing at a time, even though there was no
+premeditated intention of planting for beautiful effect, the fact of
+there being enough plants to fall into large groups, and to cover some
+extent of ground, produces numbers of excellent results. I remember
+being struck with this on several occasions when I have had the
+happiness of visiting Mr. G. F. Wilson's garden at Wisley, a garden
+which I take to be about the most instructive it is possible to see. In
+one part, where the foot of the hill joined the copse, there were hosts
+of lovely things planted on a succession of rather narrow banks. Almost
+unthinkingly I expressed the regret I felt that so much individual
+beauty should be there without an attempt to arrange it for good effect.
+Mr. Wilson stopped, and looking at me straight with a kindly smile, said
+very quietly, "That is your business, not mine." In spite of its being a
+garden whose first object is trial and experiment, it has left in my
+memory two pictures, among several lesser ones, of plant-beauty that
+will stay with me as long as I can remember anything, one an autumn and
+one a spring picture--the hedge of _Rosa rugosa_ in full fruit, and a
+plantation of _Primula denticulata_. The Primrose was on a bit of level
+ground, just at the outer and inner edges of the hazel copse. The plants
+were both grouped and thinly sprinkled, just as nature plants--possibly
+they grew directly there from seed. They were in superb and luxuriant
+beauty in the black peaty-looking half-boggy earth, the handsome
+leaves of the brilliant colour and large size that told of perfect
+health and vigour, and the large round heads of pure lilac flower
+carried on strong stalks that must have been fifteen inches high. I
+never saw it so happy and so beautiful. It is a plant I much admire, and
+I do the best I can for it on my dry hill; but the conditions of my
+garden do not allow of any approach to the success of the Wisley plants;
+still I have treasured that lesson among many others I have brought away
+from that good garden, and never fail to advise some such treatment when
+I see the likely home for it in other places.
+
+[Illustration: A ROADSIDE COTTAGE GARDEN.]
+
+Some of the most delightful of all gardens are the little strips in
+front of roadside cottages. They have a simple and tender charm that one
+may look for in vain in gardens of greater pretension. And the old
+garden flowers seem to know that there they are seen at their best; for
+where else can one see such Wallflowers, or Double Daisies, or White
+Rose bushes; such clustering masses of perennial Peas, or such well-kept
+flowery edgings of Pink, or Thrift, or London Pride?
+
+Among a good many calls for advice about laying out gardens, I remember
+an early one that was of special interest. It was the window-box of a
+factory lad in one of the great northern manufacturing towns. He had
+advertised in a mechanical paper that he wanted a tiny garden, as full
+of interest as might be, in a window-box; he knew nothing--would
+somebody help him with advice? So advice was sent and the box prepared.
+If I remember rightly the size was three feet by ten inches. A little
+later the post brought him little plants of mossy and silvery
+saxifrages, and a few small bulbs. Even some stones were sent, for it
+was to be a rock-garden, and there were to be two hills of different
+heights with rocky tops, and a longish valley with a sunny and a shady
+side.
+
+It was delightful to have the boy's letters, full of keen interest and
+eager questions, and only difficult to restrain him from killing his
+plants with kindness, in the way of liberal doses of artificial manure.
+The very smallness of the tiny garden made each of its small features
+the more precious. I could picture his feeling of delightful
+anticipation when he saw the first little bluish blade of the Snowdrop
+patch pierce its mossy carpet. Would it, could it really grow into a
+real Snowdrop, with the modest, milk-white flower and the pretty green
+hearts on the outside of the inner petals, and the clear green stripes
+within? and would it really nod him a glad good-morning when he opened
+his window to greet it? And those few blunt reddish horny-looking snouts
+just coming through the ground, would they really grow into the
+brilliant blue of the early Squill, that would be like a bit of
+midsummer sky among the grimy surroundings of the attic window, and
+under that grey, soot-laden northern sky? I thought with pleasure how he
+would watch them in spare minutes of the dinner-hour spent at home, and
+think of them as he went forward and back to his work, and how the
+remembrance of the tender beauty of the full-blown flower would make him
+glad, and lift up his heart while "minding his mule" in the busy
+restless mill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+BEGINNING AND LEARNING
+
+The ignorant questioner -- Beginning at the end -- An example --
+Personal experience -- Absence of outer help -- Johns' "Flowers of the
+Field" -- Collecting plants -- Nurseries near London -- Wheel-spokes as
+labels -- Garden friends -- Mr. Robinson's "English Flower-Garden" --
+Mr. Nicholson's "Dictionary of Gardening" -- One main idea desirable --
+Pictorial treatment -- Training in fine art -- Adapting from Nature --
+Study of colour -- Ignorant use of the word "artistic."
+
+
+Many people who love flowers and wish to do some practical gardening are
+at their wit's end to know what to do and how to begin. Like a person
+who is on skates for the first time, they feel that, what with the
+bright steel runners, and the slippery surface, and the sense of
+helplessness, there are more ways of tumbling about than of progressing
+safely in any one direction. And in gardening the beginner must feel
+this kind of perplexity and helplessness, and indeed there is a great
+deal to learn, only it is pleasant instead of perilous, and the many
+tumbles by the way only teach and do not hurt. The first few steps are
+perhaps the most difficult, and it is only when we know something of the
+subject and an eager beginner comes with questions that one sees how
+very many are the things that want knowing. And the more ignorant the
+questioner, the more difficult it is to answer helpfully. When one
+knows, one cannot help presupposing some sort of knowledge on the part
+of the querist, and where this is absent the answer we can give is of no
+use. The ignorance, when fairly complete, is of such a nature that the
+questioner does not know what to ask, and the question, even if it can
+be answered, falls upon barren ground. I think in such cases it is
+better to try and teach one simple thing at a time, and not to attempt
+to answer a number of useless questions. It is disheartening when one
+has tried to give a careful answer to have it received with an Oh! of
+boredom or disappointment, as much as to say, You can't expect me to
+take all that trouble; and there is the still more unsatisfactory sort
+of applicant, who plies a string of questions and will not wait for the
+answers! The real way is to try and learn a little from everybody and
+from every place. There is no royal road. It is no use asking me or any
+one else how to dig--I mean sitting indoors and asking it. Better go and
+watch a man digging, and then take a spade and try to do it, and go on
+trying till it comes, and you gain the knack that is to be learnt with
+all tools, of doubling the power and halving the effort; and meanwhile
+you will be learning other things, about your own arms and legs and
+back, and perhaps a little robin will come and give you moral support,
+and at the same time keep a sharp look-out for any worms you may happen
+to turn up; and you will find out that there are all sorts of ways of
+learning, not only from people and books, but from sheer trying.
+
+I remember years ago having to learn to use the blow-pipe, for soldering
+and other purposes connected with work in gold and silver. The difficult
+part of it is to keep up the stream of air through the pipe while you
+are breathing the air in; it is easy enough when you only want a short
+blast of a few seconds, within the compass of one breath or one filling
+of the bellows (lungs), but often one has to go on blowing through
+several inspirations. It is a trick of muscular action. My master who
+taught me never could do it himself, but by much trying one day I caught
+the trick.
+
+The grand way to learn, in gardening as in all things else, is to wish
+to learn, and to be determined to find out--not to think that any one
+person can wave a wand and give the power and knowledge. And there will
+be plenty of mistakes, and there must be, just as children must pass
+through the usual childish complaints. And some people make the mistake
+of trying to begin at the end, and of using recklessly what may want the
+utmost caution, such, for instance, as strong chemical manures.
+
+Some ladies asked me why their plant had died. They had got it from the
+very best place, and they were sure they had done their very best for
+it, and--there it was, dead. I asked what it was, and how they had
+treated it. It was some ordinary border plant, whose identity I now
+forget; they had made a nice hole with their new trowel, and for its
+sole benefit they had bought a tin of Concentrated Fertiliser. This they
+had emptied into the hole, put in the plant, and covered it up and given
+it lots of water, and--it had died! And yet these were the best and
+kindest of women, who would never have dreamed of feeding a new-born
+infant on beefsteaks and raw brandy. But they learned their lesson well,
+and at once saw the sense when I pointed out that a plant with naked
+roots just taken out of the ground or a pot, removed from one
+feeding-place and not yet at home in another, or still more after a
+journey, with the roots only wrapped in a little damp moss and paper,
+had its feeding power suspended for a time, and was in the position of a
+helpless invalid. All that could be done for it then was a little bland
+nutriment of weak slops and careful nursing; if the planting took place
+in the summer it would want shading and only very gentle watering, until
+firm root-hold was secured and root-appetite became active, and that in
+rich and well-prepared garden ground such as theirs strong artificial
+manure was in any case superfluous.
+
+When the earlier ignorances are overcome it becomes much easier to help
+and advise, because there is more common ground to stand on. In my own
+case, from quite a small child, I had always seen gardening going on,
+though not of a very interesting kind. Nothing much was thought of but
+bedding plants, and there was a rather large space on each side of the
+house for these, one on gravel and one on turf. But I had my own little
+garden in a nook beyond the shrubbery, with a seat shaded by a
+_Boursault elegans_ Rose, which I thought then, and still think, one of
+the loveliest of its kind. But my first knowledge of hardy plants came
+through wild ones. Some one gave me that excellent book, the Rev. C. A.
+Johns' "Flowers of the Field." For many years I had no one to advise me
+(I was still quite small) how to use the book, or how to get to know
+(though it stared me in the face) how the plants were in large related
+families, and I had not the sense to do it for myself, nor to learn the
+introductory botanical part, which would have saved much trouble
+afterwards; but when I brought home my flowers I would take them one by
+one and just turn over the pages till I came to the picture that looked
+something like. But in this way I got a knowledge of individuals, and
+afterwards the idea of broad classification and relationship of genera
+to species may have come all the easier. I always think of that book as
+the most precious gift I ever received. I distinctly trace to its
+teaching my first firm steps in the path of plant knowledge, and the
+feeling of assured comfort I had afterwards in recognising the kinds
+when I came to collect garden plants; for at that time I had no other
+garden book, no means of access to botanic gardens or private
+collections, and no helpful adviser.
+
+One copy of "Johns" I wore right out; I have now two, of which one is in
+its second binding, and is always near me for reference. I need hardly
+say that this was long before the days of the "English Flower-Garden,"
+or its helpful predecessor, "Alpine Plants."
+
+By this time I was steadily collecting hardy garden plants wherever I
+could find them, mostly from cottage gardens. Many of them were still
+unknown to me by name, but as the collection increased I began to
+compare and discriminate, and of various kinds of one plant to throw out
+the worse and retain the better, and to train myself to see what made a
+good garden plant, and about then began to grow the large yellow and
+white bunch Primroses, whose history is in another chapter. And then I
+learnt that there were such places (though then but few) as nurseries,
+where such plants as I had been collecting in the cottage gardens, and
+even better, were grown. And I went to Osborne's at Fulham (now all
+built over), and there saw the original tree of the fine Ilex known as
+the Fulham Oak, and several spring-flowering bulbs I had never seen
+before, and what I felt sure were numbers of desirable summer-flowering
+plants, but not then in bloom. Soon after this I began to learn
+something about Daffodils, and enjoyed much kind help from Mr. Barr,
+visiting his nursery (then at Tooting) several times, and sometimes
+combining a visit to Parker's nursery just over the way, a perfect
+paradise of good hardy plants. I shall never forget my first sight
+here of the Cape Pondweed (_Aponogeton distachyon_) in full flower and
+great vigour in the dipping tanks, and overflowing from them into the
+ditches.
+
+Also I was delighted to see the use as labels of old wheel-spokes. I
+could not help feeling that if one had been a spoke of a cab-wheel, and
+had passed all one's working life in being whirled and clattered over
+London pavements, defiled with street mud, how pleasant a way to end
+one's days was this; to have one's felloe end pointed and dipped in nice
+wholesome rot-resisting gas-tar and thrust into the quiet cool earth,
+and one's nave end smoothed and painted and inscribed with some such
+soothing legend as _Vinca minor_ or _Dianthus fragrans_!
+
+Later I made acquaintance with several of the leading amateur and
+professional gardeners, and with Mr. Robinson, and to their good
+comradeship and kindly willingness to let me "pick their brains" I owe a
+great advance in garden lore. Moreover, what began by the drawing
+together of a common interest has grown into a still greater benefit,
+for several acquaintances so made have ripened into steady and
+much-valued friendships. It has been a great interest to me to have had
+the privilege of watching the gradual growth, through its several
+editions, of Mr. Robinson's "English Flower-Garden," the one best and
+most helpful book of all for those who want to know about hardy flowers,
+offering as it does in the clearest and easiest way a knowledge of the
+garden-treasures of the temperate world. No one who has not had
+occasional glimpses behind the scenes can know how much labour and
+thought such a book represents, to say nothing of research and practical
+experiment, and of the trouble and great expense of producing the large
+amount of pictorial illustration. Another book, though on quite
+different lines, that I find most useful is Mr. Nicholson's "Illustrated
+Dictionary of Gardening," in eight handy volumes. It covers much the
+same ground as the useful old Johnson's "Gardener's Dictionary," but is
+much more complete and comprehensive, and is copiously illustrated with
+excellent wood-cuts. It is the work of a careful and learned botanist,
+treating of all plants desirable for cultivation from all climates, and
+teaching all branches of practical horticulture and such useful matters
+as means of dealing with insect pests. The old "Johnson" is still a
+capital book in one volume; mine is rather out of date, being the
+edition of 1875, but it has been lately revised and improved. It would
+be delightful to possess, or to have easy access to, a good botanical
+library; still, for all the purposes of the average garden lover, these
+books will suffice.
+
+I think it is desirable, when a certain degree of knowledge of plants
+and facility of dealing with them has been acquired, to get hold of a
+clear idea of what one most wishes to do. The scope of the subject is so
+wide, and there are so many ways to choose from, that having one general
+idea helps one to concentrate thought and effort that would otherwise
+be wasted by being diluted and dribbled through too many probable
+channels of waste.
+
+Ever since it came to me to feel some little grasp of knowledge of means
+and methods, I have found that my greatest pleasure, both in garden and
+woodland, has been in the enjoyment of beauty of a pictorial kind.
+Whether the picture be large as of a whole landscape, or of lesser
+extent as in some fine single group or effect, or within the space of
+only a few inches as may be seen in some happily-disposed planting of
+Alpines, the intention is always the same; or whether it is the grouping
+of trees in the wood by the removal of those whose lines are not wanted
+in the picture, or in the laying out of broad grassy ways in woody
+places, or by ever so slight a turn or change of direction in a wood
+path, or in the alteration of some arrangement of related groups for
+form or for massing of light and shade, or for any of the many local
+conditions that guide one towards forming a decision, the intention is
+still always the same--to try and make a beautiful garden-picture. And
+little as I can as yet boast of being able to show anything like the
+number of these I could wish, yet during the flower-year there is
+generally something that at least in part answers to the effort.
+
+I do not presume to urge the acceptance of my own particular form of
+pleasure in a garden on those to whom, from different temperament or
+manner of education, it would be unwelcome; I only speak of what I
+feel, and to a certain degree understand; but I had the advantage in
+earlier life of some amount of training in appreciation of the fine
+arts, and this, working upon an inborn feeling of reverent devotion to
+things of the highest beauty in the works of God, has helped me to an
+understanding of their divinely-inspired interpretations by the noblest
+minds of men, into those other forms that we know as works of fine art.
+
+And so it comes about that those of us who feel and understand in this
+way do not exactly attempt to imitate Nature in our gardens, but try to
+become well acquainted with her moods and ways, and then discriminate in
+our borrowing, and so interpret her methods as best we may to the making
+of our garden-pictures.
+
+I have always had great delight in the study of colour, as the word is
+understood by artists, which again is not a positive matter, but one of
+relation and proportion. And when one hears the common chatter about
+"artistic colours," one receives an unpleasant impression about the
+education and good taste of the speaker; and one is reminded of an old
+saying which treats of the unwisdom of rushing in "where angels fear to
+tread," and of regret that a good word should be degraded by misuse. It
+may be safely said that no colour can be called artistic in itself; for,
+in the first place, it is bad English, and in the second, it is
+nonsense. Even if the first objection were waived, and the second
+condoned, it could only be used in a secondary sense, as signifying
+something that is useful and suitable and right in its place. In this
+limited sense the scarlet of the soldier's coat, and of the pillar-box
+and mail-cart, and the bright colours of flags, or of the port and
+starboard lights of ships, might be said to be just so far "artistic"
+(again if grammar would allow), as they are right and good in their
+places. But then those who use the word in the usual ignorant, random
+way have not even this simple conception of its meaning. Those who know
+nothing about colour in the more refined sense (and like a knowledge of
+everything else it wants learning) get no farther than to enjoy it only
+when most crude and garish--when, as George Herbert says, it "bids the
+rash gazer wipe his eye," or when there is some violent opposition of
+complementary colour--forgetting, or not knowing, that though in detail
+the objects brought together may make each other appear brighter, yet in
+the mass, and especially when mixed up, the one actually neutralises the
+other. And they have no idea of using the colour of flowers as precious
+jewels in a setting of quiet environment, or of suiting the colour of
+flowering groups to that of the neighbouring foliage, thereby enhancing
+the value of both, or of massing related or harmonious colourings so as
+to lead up to the most powerful and brilliant effects; and yet all these
+are just the ways of employing colour to the best advantage.
+
+But the most frequent fault, whether in composition or in colour, is the
+attempt to crowd too much into the picture; the simpler effect obtained
+by means of temperate and wise restraint is always the more telling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE FLOWER-BORDER AND PERGOLA
+
+The flower-border -- The wall and its occupants -- _Choisya ternata_ --
+Nandina -- Canon Ellacombe's garden -- Treatment of colour-masses --
+Arrangement of plants in the border -- Dahlias and Cannas -- Covering
+bare places -- The pergola -- How made -- Suitable climbers -- Arbours
+of trained Planes -- Garden houses.
+
+
+I have a rather large "mixed border of hardy flowers." It is not quite
+so hopelessly mixed as one generally sees, and the flowers are not all
+hardy; but as it is a thing everybody rightly expects, and as I have
+been for a good many years trying to puzzle out its wants and ways, I
+will try and describe my own and its surroundings.
+
+There is a sandstone wall of pleasant colour at the back, nearly eleven
+feet high. This wall is an important feature in the garden, as it is the
+dividing line between the pleasure garden and the working garden; also,
+it shelters the pleasure garden from the sweeping blasts of wind from
+the north-west, to which my ground is much exposed, as it is all on a
+gentle slope, going downward towards the north. At the foot of the wall
+is a narrow border three feet six inches wide, and then a narrow alley,
+not a made path, but just a way to go along for tending the wall
+shrubs, and for getting at the back of the border. This little alley
+does not show from the front. Then the main border, fourteen feet wide
+and two hundred feet long. About three-quarters of the way along a path
+cuts through the border, and passes by an arched gateway in the wall to
+the Paeony garden and the working garden beyond. Just here I thought it
+would be well to mound up the border a little, and plant with groups of
+Yuccas, so that at all times of the year there should be something to
+make a handsome full-stop to the sections of the border, and to glorify
+the doorway. The two extreme ends of the border are treated in the same
+way with Yuccas on rather lesser mounds, only leaving space beyond them
+for the entrance to the little alley at the back.
+
+[Illustration: A FLOWER-BORDER IN JUNE.]
+
+The wall and border face two points to the east of south, or, as a
+sailor would say, south-south-east, half-way between south and
+south-east. In front of the border runs a path seven feet wide, and
+where the border stops at the eastern end it still runs on another sixty
+feet, under the pergola, to the open end of a summer-house. The wall at
+its western end returns forward, square with its length, and hides out
+greenhouses, sheds, and garden yard. The path in front of the border
+passes through an arch into this yard, but there is no view into the
+yard, as it is blocked by some Yews planted in a quarter-circle.
+
+Though wall-space is always precious, I thought it better to block out
+this shorter piece of return wall on the garden side with a hedge of
+Yews. They are now nearly the height of the wall, and will be allowed to
+grow a little higher, and will eventually be cut into an arch over the
+arch in the wall. I wanted the sombre duskiness of the Yews as a rich,
+quiet background for the brightness of the flowers, though they are
+rather disappointing in May and June, when their young shoots are of a
+bright and lively green. At the eastern end of the border there is no
+return wall, but another planting of Yews equal to the depth of the
+border. Notched into them is a stone seat about ten feet long; as they
+grow they will be clipped so as to make an arching hood over the seat.
+
+The wall is covered with climbers, or with non-climbing shrubs treated
+as wall-plants. They do not all want the wall for warmth or protection,
+but are there because I want them there; because, thinking over what
+things would look best and give me the greatest pleasure, these came
+among them. All the same, the larger number of the plants on the wall do
+want it, and would not do without it. At the western end, the only part
+which is in shade for the greater part of the day, is a _Garrya
+elliptica_. So many of my garden friends like a quiet journey along the
+wall to see what is there, that I propose to do the like by my reader;
+so first for the wall, and then for the border. Beyond the _Garrya_, in
+the extreme angle, is a _Clematis montana_. When the _Garrya_ is more
+grown there will not be much room left for the Clematis, but then it
+will have become bare below, and can ramble over the wall on the north
+side, and, in any case, it is a plant with a not very long lifetime, and
+will be nearly or quite worn out before its root-space is reached or
+wanted by its neighbours. Next on the wall is the beautiful Rose Acacia
+(_Robinia hispida_). It is perfectly hardy, but the wood is so brittle
+that it breaks off short with the slightest weight of wind or snow or
+rain. I never could understand why a hardy shrub was created so brittle,
+or how it behaves in its native place. I look in my "Nicholson," and see
+that it comes from North America. Now, North America is a large place,
+and there may be in it favoured spots where there is no snow, and only
+the very gentlest rain, and so well sheltered that the wind only blows
+in faintest breaths; and to judge by its behaviour in our gardens, all
+these conditions are necessary for its well-being. This troublesome
+quality of brittleness no doubt accounts for its being so seldom seen in
+gardens. I began to think it hopeless when, after three plantings in the
+open, it was again wrecked, but at last had the happy idea of training
+it on a wall. Even there, though it is looked over and tied in twice a
+year, a branch or two often gets broken. But I do not regret having
+given it the space, as the wall could hardly have had a better ornament,
+so beautiful are its rosy flower-clusters and pale-green leaves. As it
+inclines to be leggy below, I have trained a Crimson Rambler Rose over
+the lower part, tying it in to any bare places in the _Robinia_.
+
+[Illustration: PATHWAY ACROSS THE SOUTH BORDER IN JULY.]
+
+[Illustration: OUTSIDE VIEW OF THE BRICK PERGOLA SHOWN AT PAGE 214,
+AFTER SIX YEARS' GROWTH.]
+
+Next along the wall is _Solanum crispum_, much to be recommended in our
+southern counties. It covers a good space of wall, and every year shoots
+up some feet above it; indeed it is such a lively grower that it has to
+endure a severe yearly pruning. Every season it is smothered with its
+pretty clusters of potato-shaped bloom of a good bluish-lilac colour.
+After these I wanted some solid-looking dark evergreens, so there is a
+Loquat, with its splendid foliage equalling that of _Magnolia
+grandiflora_, and then Black Laurustinus, Bay, and Japan Privet; and
+from among this dark-leaved company shoots up the tender green of a
+Banksian Rose, grown from seed of the single kind, the gift of my kind
+friend Commendatore Hanbury, whose world-famed garden of La Mortola,
+near Ventimiglia, probably contains the most remarkable collection of
+plants and shrubs that have ever been brought together by one man. This
+Rose has made good growth, and a first few flowers last year--seedling
+Roses are slow to bloom--lead me to expect a good show next season.
+
+In the narrow border at the foot of the wall is a bush of _Raphiolepis
+ovata_, always to me an interesting shrub, with its thick, roundish,
+leathery leaves and white flower-clusters, also bushes of Rosemary, some
+just filling the border, and some trained up the wall. Our Tudor
+ancestors were fond of Rosemary-covered walls, and I have seen old
+bushes quite ten feet high on the garden walls of Italian monasteries.
+Among the Rosemaries I always like, if possible, to "tickle in" a China
+Rose or two, the tender pink of the Rose seems to go so well with the
+dark but dull-surfaced Rosemary. Then still in the wall-border comes a
+long straggling mass of that very pretty and interesting herbaceous
+Clematis, _C. Davidiana_. The colour of its flower always delights me;
+it is of an unusual kind of greyish-blue, of very tender and lovely
+quality. It does well in this warm border, growing about three feet
+high. Then on the wall come _Pyrus Maulei_ and _Chimonanthus_,
+Claret-Vine, and the large-flowered _Ceanothus_ Gloire de Versailles,
+hardy _Fuchsia_, and _Magnolia Soulangeana_, ending with a big bush of
+_Choisya ternata_, and rambling above it a very fine kind of _Bignonia
+grandiflora_.
+
+Then comes the archway, flanked by thick buttresses. A Choisya was
+planted just beyond each of these, but it has grown wide and high,
+spreading across the face of the buttress on each side, and considerably
+invading the pathway. There is no better shrub here than this delightful
+Mexican plant; its long whippy roots ramble through our light soil with
+every sign of enjoyment; it always looks clean and healthy and well
+dressed, and as for its lovely and deliciously sweet flowers, we cut
+them by the bushel, and almost by the faggot, and the bushes scarcely
+look any the emptier.
+
+Beyond the archway comes the shorter length of wall and border. For
+convenience I planted all slightly tender things together on this bit of
+wall and border; then we make one job of covering the whole with
+fir-boughs for protection in winter. On the wall are _Piptanthus
+nepalensis_, _Cistus ladaniferus_, _Edwardsia grandiflora_, and another
+Loquat, and in the border a number of Hydrangeas, _Clerodendron
+foetidum_, _Crinums_, and _Nandina domestica_, the Chinese so-called
+sacred Bamboo. It is not a Bamboo at all, but allied to _Berberis_; the
+Chinese plant it for good luck near their houses. If it is as lucky as
+it is pretty, it ought to do one good! I first made acquaintance with
+this beautiful plant in Canon Ellacombe's most interesting garden at
+Bitton, in Gloucestershire, where it struck me as one of the most
+beautiful growing things I had ever seen, the beauty being mostly in the
+form and colouring of the leaves. It is not perhaps a plant for
+everybody, and barely hardly; it seems slow to get hold, and its full
+beauty only shows when it is well established, and throws up its
+wonderfully-coloured leaves on tall bamboo-like stalks.
+
+There is nothing much more difficult to do in outdoor gardening than to
+plant a mixed border well, and to keep it in beauty throughout the
+summer. Every year, as I gain more experience, and, I hope, more power
+of critical judgment, I find myself tending towards broader and simpler
+effects, both of grouping and colour. I do not know whether it is by
+individual preference, or in obedience to some colour-law that I can
+instinctively feel but cannot pretend even to understand, and much less
+to explain, but in practice I always find more satisfaction and facility
+in treating the warm colours (reds and yellows) in graduated harmonies,
+culminating into gorgeousness, and the cool ones in contrasts;
+especially in the case of blue, which I like to use either in distinct
+but not garish contrasts, as of full blue with pale yellow, or in
+separate cloud-like harmonies, as of lilac and pale purple with grey
+foliage. I am never so much inclined to treat the blues, purples, and
+lilacs in gradations together as I am the reds and yellows. Purples and
+lilacs I can put together, but not these with blues; and the pure blues
+always seem to demand peculiar and very careful treatment.
+
+The western end of the flower-border begins with the low bank of Yuccas,
+then there are some rather large masses of important grey and glaucous
+foliage and pale and full pink flower. The foliage is mostly of the
+Globe Artichoke, and nearer the front of _Artemisia_ and _Cineraria
+maritima_. Among this, pink Canterbury Bell, Hollyhock, Phlox,
+Gladiolus, and Japan Anemone, all in pink colourings, will follow one
+another in due succession. Then come some groups of plants bearing
+whitish and very pale flowers, _Polygonum compactum_, _Aconitum
+lycoctonum_, Double Meadowsweet, and other Spiraeas, and then the colour
+passes to pale yellow of Mulleins, and with them the palest blue
+Delphiniums. Towards the front is a wide planting of _Iris pallida
+dalmatica_, its handsome bluish foliage showing as outstanding and yet
+related masses with regard to the first large group of pale foliage.
+Then comes the pale-yellow _Iris flavescens_, and meanwhile the group
+of Delphinium deepens into those of a fuller blue colour, though none of
+the darkest are here. Then more pale yellow of Mullein, Thalictrum, and
+Paris Daisy, and so the colour passes to stronger yellows. These change
+into orange, and from that to brightest scarlet and crimson, coming to
+the fullest strength in the Oriental Poppies of the earlier year, and
+later in Lychnis, Gladiolus, Scarlet Dahlia, and Tritoma. The
+colour-scheme then passes again through orange and yellow to the paler
+yellows, and so again to blue and warm white, where it meets one of the
+clumps of Yuccas flanking the path that divides this longer part of the
+border from the much shorter piece beyond. This simple procession of
+colour arrangement has occupied a space of a hundred and sixty feet, and
+the border is all the better for it.
+
+The short length of border beyond the gateway has again Yuccas and
+important pale foliage, and a preponderance of pink bloom, Hydrangea for
+the most part; but there are a few tall Mulleins, whose pale-yellow
+flowers group well with the ivory of the Yucca spikes and the clear pink
+of the tall Hollyhocks. These all show up well over the masses of grey
+and glaucous foliage, and against the rich darkness of dusky Yew.
+
+Dahlias and Cannas have their places in the mixed border. When it is
+being dismantled in the late autumn all bare places are well dug and
+enriched, so that when it comes to filling-up time, at the end of May, I
+know that every spare bit of space is ready and at the time of
+preparation I mark places for special Dahlias, according to colour, and
+for groups of the tall Cannas where I want grand foliage.
+
+There are certain classes of plants that are quite indispensable, but
+that leave a bare or shabby-looking place when their bloom is over. How
+to cover these places is one of the problems that have to be solved. The
+worst offender is Oriental Poppy; it becomes unsightly soon after
+blooming, and is quite gone by midsummer. I therefore plant _Gypsophila
+paniculata_ between and behind the Poppy groups, and by July there is a
+delicate cloud of bloom instead of large bare patches. _Eryngium
+Oliverianum_ has turned brown by the beginning of July, but around the
+group some Dahlias have been planted, that will be gradually trained
+down over the space of the departed Sea-Holly, and other Dahlias are
+used in the same way to mask various weak places.
+
+There is a perennial Sunflower, with tall black stems, and pale-yellow
+flowers quite at the top, an old garden sort, but not very good as
+usually grown; this I find of great value to train down, when it throws
+up a short flowering stem from each joint, and becomes a spreading sheet
+of bloom.
+
+One would rather not have to resort to these artifices of sticking and
+training; but if a certain effect is wanted, all such means are lawful,
+provided that nothing looks stiff or strained or unsightly; and it is
+pleasant to exercise ingenuity and to invent ways to meet the needs of
+any case that may arise. But like everything else, in good gardening it
+must be done just right, and the artist-gardener finds that hardly the
+placing of a single plant can be deputed to any other hand than his own;
+for though, when it is done, it looks quite simple and easy, he must
+paint his own picture himself--no one can paint it for him.
+
+I have no dogmatic views about having in the so-called hardy
+flower-border none but hardy flowers. All flowers are welcome that are
+right in colour, and that make a brave show where a brave show is
+wanted. It is of more importance that the border should be handsome than
+that all its occupants should be hardy. Therefore I prepare a certain
+useful lot of half-hardy annuals, and a few of what have come to be
+called bedding-plants. I like to vary them a little from year to year,
+because in no one season can I get in all the good flowers that I should
+like to grow; and I think it better to leave out some one year and have
+them the next, than to crowd any up, or to find I have plants to put out
+and no space to put them in. But I nearly always grow these half-hardy
+annuals; orange African Marigold, French Marigold, sulphur Sunflower,
+orange and scarlet tall Zinnia, Nasturtiums, both dwarf and trailing,
+_Nicotiana affinis_, Maize, and Salpiglossis. Then Stocks and China
+Asters. The Stocks are always the large white and flesh-coloured summer
+kinds, and the Asters, the White Comet, and one of the blood-red or
+so-called scarlet sorts.
+
+Then I have yellow Paris Daisies, _Salvia patens_, Heliotrope,
+_Calceolaria amplexicaulis_, Geraniums, scarlet and salmon-coloured and
+ivy-leaved kinds, the best of these being the pink Madame Crousse.
+
+[Illustration: END OF FLOWER-BORDER AND ENTRANCE OF PERGOLA.]
+
+[Illustration: SOUTH BORDER DOOR AND YUCCAS IN AUGUST.]
+
+The front edges of the border are also treated in rather a large way. At
+the shadier end there is first a long straggling bordering patch of
+_Anemone sylvestris_. When it is once above ground the foliage remains
+good till autumn, while its soft white flower comes right with the
+colour of the flowers behind. Then comes a long and large patch of the
+larger kind of _Megasea cordifolia_, several yards in length, and
+running back here and there among taller plants. I am never tired of
+admiring the fine solid foliage of this family of plants, remaining, as
+it does, in beauty both winter and summer, and taking on a splendid
+winter colouring of warm red bronze. It is true that the flowers of the
+two best-known kinds, _M. cordifolia_ and _M. crassifolia_, are
+coarse-looking blooms of a strong and rank quality of pink colour, but
+the persistent beauty of the leaves more than compensates; and in the
+rather tenderer kind, _M. ligulata_ and its varieties, the colour of the
+flower is delightful, of a delicate good pink, with almost scarlet
+stalks. There is nothing flimsy or temporary-looking about the Megaseas,
+but rather a sort of grave and monumental look that specially fits them
+for association with masonry, or for any place where a solid-looking
+edging or full-stop is wanted. To go back to those in the edge of the
+border: if the edging threatens to look too dark and hard, I plant
+among or just behind the plants that compose it, pink or scarlet Ivy
+Geranium or trailing Nasturtium, according to the colour demanded by the
+neighbouring group. _Heuchera Richardsoni_ is another good front-edge
+plant; and when we come to the blue and pale-yellow group there is a
+planting of _Funkia grandiflora_, whose fresh-looking pale-green leaves
+are delightful with the brilliant light yellow of _Calceolaria
+amplexicaulis_, and the farther-back planting of pale-blue Delphinium,
+Mullein, and sulphur Sunflower; while the same colour of foliage is
+repeated in the fresh green of the Indian Corn. Small spaces occur here
+and there along the extreme front edge, and here are planted little
+jewels of colour, of blue Lobelia, or dwarf Nasturtium, or anything of
+the colour that the place demands.
+
+The whole thing sounds much more elaborate than it really is; the
+trained eye sees what is wanted, and the trained hand does it, both by
+an acquired instinct. It is painting a picture with living plants.
+
+I much enjoy the pergola at the end of the sunny path. It is pleasant
+while walking in full sunshine, and when that sunny place feels just a
+little too hot, to look into its cool depth, and to feel that one has
+only to go a few steps farther to be in shade, and to feel that little
+air of wind that the moving summer clouds say is not far off, and is
+only unfelt just here because it is stopped by the wall. It feels
+wonderfully dark at first, this gallery of cool greenery, passing into
+it with one's eyes full of light and colour, and the open-sided
+summer-house at the end looks like a black cavern; but on going into it,
+and sitting down on one of its broad, low benches, one finds that it is
+a pleasant subdued light, just right to read by.
+
+The pergola has two openings out of it on the right, and one on the
+left. The first way out on the right is straight into the nut-walk,
+which leads up to very near the house. The second goes up two or three
+low, broad steps made of natural sandstone flags, between groups of
+Ferns, into the Michaelmas Daisy garden. The opening on the left leads
+into a quiet space of grass the width of the flower and wall border
+(twenty feet), having only some peat-beds planted with Kalmia. This is
+backed by a Yew hedge in continuation of the main wall, and it will soon
+grow into a cool, quiet bit of garden, seeming to belong to the pergola.
+Now, standing midway in the length of the covered walk, with the eye
+rested and refreshed by the leafy half-light, on turning round again
+towards the border it shows as a brilliant picture through the bowery
+framing, and the value of the simple method of using the colours is seen
+to full advantage.
+
+I do not like a mean pergola, made of stuff as thin as hop-poles. If
+means or materials do not admit of having anything better, it is far
+better to use these in some other simple way, of which there are many to
+choose from--such as uprights at even intervals, braced together with a
+continuous rail at about four feet from the ground, and another rail
+just clear of the ground, and some simple trellis of the smaller stuff
+between these two rails. This is always pretty at the back of a
+flower-border in any modest garden. But a pergola should be more
+seriously treated, and the piers at any rate should be of something
+rather large--either oak stems ten inches thick, or, better still, of
+fourteen-inch brickwork painted with lime-wash to a quiet stone-colour.
+In Italy the piers are often of rubble masonry, either round or square
+in section, coated with very coarse plaster, and lime-washed white. For
+a pergola of moderate size the piers should stand in pairs across the
+path, with eight feet clear between. Ten feet from pier to pier along
+the path is a good proportion, or anything from eight to ten feet, and
+they should stand seven feet two inches out of the ground. Each pair
+should be tied across the top with a strong beam of oak, either of the
+natural shape, or roughly adzed on the four faces; but in any case, the
+ends of the beams, where they rest on the top of the piers, should be
+adzed flat to give them a firm seat. If the beams are slightly curved or
+cambered, as most trunks of oak are, so much the better, but they must
+always be placed camber side up. The pieces that run along the top, with
+the length of the path, may be of any branching tops of oak, or of larch
+poles. These can easily be replaced as they decay; but the replacing of
+a beam is a more difficult matter, so that it is well to let them be
+fairly durable from the beginning.
+
+[Illustration: STONE-BUILT PERGOLA WITH WROUGHT OAK BEAMS.]
+
+[Illustration: PERGOLA WITH BRICK PIERS AND BEAMS OF ROUGH OAK. (_See
+opposite page 202._)]
+
+The climbers I find best for covering the pergola are Vines, Jasmine,
+Aristolochia, Virginia Creeper, and Wistaria. Roses are about the worst,
+for they soon run up leggy, and only flower at the top out of sight.
+
+A sensible arrangement, allied to the pergola, and frequent in Germany
+and Switzerland, is made by planting young Planes, pollarding them at
+about eight feet from the ground, and training down the young growths
+horizontally till they have covered the desired roof-space.
+
+There is much to be done in our better-class gardens in the way of
+pretty small structures thoroughly well-designed and built. Many a large
+lawn used every afternoon in summer as a family playground and place to
+receive visitors would have its comfort and usefulness greatly increased
+by a pretty garden-house, instead of the usual hot and ugly, crampy and
+uncomfortable tent. But it should be thoroughly well designed to suit
+the house and garden. A pigeon-cote would come well in the upper part,
+and the face or faces open to the lawn might be closed in winter with
+movable shutters, when it would make a useful store-place for garden
+seats and much else.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE PRIMROSE GARDEN
+
+
+It must be some five-and-twenty years ago that I began to work at what I
+may now call my own strain of Primroses, improving it a little every
+year by careful selection of the best for seed. The parents of the
+strain were a named kind, called Golden Plover, and a white one, without
+name, that I found in a cottage garden. I had also a dozen plants about
+eight or nine years ago from a strong strain of Mr. Anthony Waterer's
+that was running on nearly the same lines; but a year later, when I had
+flowered them side by side, I liked my own one rather the best, and Mr.
+Waterer, seeing them soon after, approved of them so much that he took
+some to work with his own. I hold Mr. Waterer's strain in great
+admiration, and, though I tried for a good many years, never could come
+near him in red colourings. But as my own taste favoured the
+delicately-shaded flowers, and the ones most liked in the nursery seemed
+to be those with strongly contrasting eye, it is likely that the two
+strains may be working still farther apart.
+
+They are, broadly speaking, white and yellow varieties of the strong
+bunch-flowered or Polyanthus kind, but they vary in detail so much, in
+form, colour, habit, arrangement, and size of eye and shape of edge,
+that one year thinking it might be useful to classify them I tried to do
+so, but gave it up after writing out the characters of sixty classes!
+Their possible variation seems endless. Every year among the seedlings
+there appear a number of charming flowers with some new development of
+size, or colour of flower, or beauty of foliage, and yet all within the
+narrow bounds of--white and yellow Primroses.
+
+[Illustration: EVENING IN THE PRIMROSE GARDEN.]
+
+Their time of flowering is much later than that of the true or
+single-stalked Primrose. They come into bloom early in April, though a
+certain number of poorly-developed flowers generally come much earlier,
+and they are at their best in the last two weeks of April and the first
+days of May. When the bloom wanes, and is nearly overtopped by the
+leaves, the time has come that I find best for dividing and replanting.
+The plants then seem willing to divide, some almost falling apart in
+one's hands, and the new roots may be seen just beginning to form at the
+base of the crown. The plants are at the same time relieved of the
+crowded mass of flower-stem, and, therefore, of the exhausting effort of
+forming seed, a severe drain on their strength. A certain number will
+not have made more than one strong crown, and a few single-crown plants
+have not flowered; these, of course, do not divide. During the flowering
+time I keep a good look-out for those that I judge to be the most
+beautiful and desirable, and mark them for seed. These are also taken
+up, but are kept apart, the flower stems reduced to one or two of the
+most promising, and they are then planted in a separate place--some cool
+nursery corner. I find that the lifting and replanting in no way checks
+the growth or well-being of the seed-pods.
+
+I remember some years ago a warm discussion in the gardening papers
+about the right time to sow the seed. Some gardeners of high standing
+were strongly for sowing it as soon as ripe, while others equally
+trustworthy advised holding it over till March. I have tried both ways,
+and have satisfied myself that it is a matter for experiment and
+decision in individual gardens. As nearly as I can make out, it is well
+in heavy soils to sow when ripe, and in light ones to wait till March.
+In some heavy soils Primroses stand well for two years without division;
+whereas in light ones, such as mine, they take up the food within reach
+in a much shorter time, so that by the second year the plant has become
+a crowded mass of weak crowns that only throw up poor flowers, and are
+by then so much exhausted that they are not worth dividing afterwards.
+In my own case, having tried both ways, I find the March sown ones much
+the best.
+
+The seed is sown in boxes in cold frames, and pricked out again into
+boxes when large enough to handle. The seedlings are planted out in
+June, when they seem to go on without any check whatever, and are just
+right for blooming next spring.
+
+The Primrose garden is in a place by itself--a clearing half shaded by
+Oak, Chestnut, and Hazel. I always think of the Hazel as a kind nurse to
+Primroses; in the copses they generally grow together, and the finest
+Primrose plants are often nestled close in to the base of the nut-stool.
+Three paths run through the Primrose garden, mere narrow tracks between
+the beds, converging at both ends, something like the lines of longitude
+on a globe, the ground widening in the middle where there are two
+good-sized Oaks, and coming to a blunt point at each end, the only other
+planting near it being two other long-shaped strips of Lily of the
+Valley.
+
+Every year, before replanting, the Primrose ground is dug over and well
+manured. All day for two days I sit on a low stool dividing the plants;
+a certain degree of facility and expertness has come of long practice.
+The "rubber" for frequent knife-sharpening is in a pail of water by my
+side; the lusciously fragrant heap of refuse leaf and flower-stem and
+old stocky root rises in front of me, changing its shape from a heap to
+a ridge, as when it comes to a certain height and bulk I back and back
+away from it. A boy feeds me with armfuls of newly-dug-up plants, two
+men are digging-in the cooling cow-dung at the farther end, and another
+carries away the divided plants tray by tray, and carefully replants
+them. The still air, with only the very gentlest south-westerly breath
+in it, brings up the mighty boom of the great ship guns from the old
+seaport, thirty miles away, and the pheasants answer to the sound as
+they do to thunder. The early summer air is of a perfect temperature,
+the soft coo of the wood-dove comes down from the near wood, the
+nightingale sings almost overhead, but--either human happiness may never
+be quite complete, or else one is not philosophic enough to contemn
+life's lesser evils, for--oh, the midges!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+COLOURS OF FLOWERS
+
+
+I am always surprised at the vague, not to say reckless, fashion in
+which garden folk set to work to describe the colours of flowers, and at
+the way in which quite wrong colours are attributed to them. It is done
+in perfect good faith, and without the least consciousness of describing
+wrongly. In many cases it appears to be because the names of certain
+substances have been used conventionally or poetically to convey the
+idea of certain colours. And some of these errors are so old that they
+have acquired a kind of respectability, and are in a way accepted
+without challenge. When they are used about familiar flowers it does not
+occur to one to detect them, because one knows the flower and its true
+colour; but when the same old error is used in the description of a new
+flower, it is distinctly misleading. For instance, when we hear of
+golden buttercups, we know that it means bright-yellow buttercups; but
+in the case of a new flower, or one not generally known, surely it is
+better and more accurate to say bright yellow at once. Nothing is more
+frequent in plant catalogues than "bright golden yellow," when bright
+yellow is meant. Gold is not bright yellow. I find that a gold piece
+laid on a gravel path, or against a sandy bank, nearly matches it in
+colour; and I cannot think of any flower that matches or even approaches
+the true colour of gold, though something near it may be seen in the
+pollen-covered anthers of many flowers. A match for gold may more nearly
+be found among dying beech leaves, and some dark colours of straw or dry
+grass bents, but none of these when they match the gold are bright
+yellow. In literature it is quite another matter; when the poet or
+imaginative writer says, "a field of golden buttercups," or "a golden
+sunset," he is quite right, because he appeals to our artistic
+perception, and in such case only uses the word as an image of something
+that is rich and sumptuous and glowing.
+
+The same irrelevance of comparison seems to run through all the colours.
+Flowers of a full, bright-blue colour are often described as of a
+"brilliant amethystine blue." Why amethystine? The amethyst, as we
+generally see it, is a stone of a washy purple colour, and though there
+are amethysts of a fine purple, they are not so often seen as the paler
+ones, and I have never seen one even faintly approaching a really blue
+colour. What, therefore, is the sense of likening a flower, such as a
+Delphinium, which is really of a splendid pure-blue colour, to the
+duller and totally different colour of a third-rate gem?
+
+Another example of the same slip-slop is the term flame-coloured, and
+it is often preceded by the word "gorgeous." This contradictory mixture
+of terms is generally used to mean bright scarlet. When I look at a
+flame, whether of fire or candle, I see that the colour is a rather pale
+yellow, with a reddish tinge about its upper forks, and side wings often
+of a bluish white--no scarlet anywhere. The nearest approach to red is
+in the coals, not in the flame. In the case of the candle, the point of
+the wick is faintly red when compared with the flame, but about the
+flame there is no red whatever. A distant bonfire looks red at night,
+but I take it that the apparent redness is from seeing the flames
+through damp atmosphere, just as the harvest-moon looks red when it
+rises.
+
+And the strange thing is that in all these cases the likeness to the
+unlike, and much less bright, colour is given with an air of conferring
+the highest compliment on the flower in question. It is as if, wishing
+to praise some flower of a beautiful blue, one called it a brilliant
+slate-roof blue. This sounds absurd, because it is unfamiliar, but the
+unsuitability of the comparison is scarcely greater than in the examples
+just quoted.
+
+It seems most reasonable in describing the colour of flowers to look out
+for substances whose normal colour shows but little variation--such, for
+example, as sulphur. The colour of sulphur is nearly always the same.
+Citron, lemon, and canary are useful colour-names, indicating different
+strengths of pure pale yellow, inclining towards a tinge of the palest
+green. Gentian-blue is a useful word, bringing to mind the piercingly
+powerful hue of the Gentianella. So also is turquoise-blue, for the
+stone has little variety of shade, and the colour is always of the same
+type. Forget-me-not blue is also a good word, meaning the colour of the
+native water Forget-me-not. Sky-blue is a little vague, though it has
+come by the "crystallising" force of usage to stand for a blue rather
+pale than full, and not far from that of the Forget-me-not; indeed, I
+seem to remember written passages in which the colours of flower and
+firmament were used reciprocally, the one in describing the other.
+Cobalt is a word sometimes used, but more often misused, for only
+water-colour painters know just what it represents, and it is of little
+use, as it so rarely occurs among flowers.
+
+Crimson is a word to beware of; it covers such a wide extent of ground,
+and is used so carelessly in plant-catalogues, that one cannot know
+whether it stands for a rich blood colour or for a malignant magenta.
+For the latter class of colour the term amaranth, so generally used in
+French plant-lists, is extremely useful, both as a definition and a
+warning. Salmon is an excellent colour-word, copper is also useful, the
+two covering a limited range of beautiful colouring of the utmost value.
+Blood-red is also accurately descriptive. Terra-cotta is useful but
+indefinite, as it may mean anything between brick-red and buff.
+Red-lead, if it would be accepted as a colour-word, would be useful,
+denoting the shades of colour between the strongest orange and the
+palest scarlet, frequent in the lightest of the Oriental Poppies. Amber
+is a misleading word, for who is to know when it means the transparent
+amber, whose colour approaches that of resin, or the pale, almost
+opaque, dull-yellow kind. And what is meant by coral-red? It is the red
+of the old-fashioned dull-scarlet coral, or of the pink kind more
+recently in favour.
+
+The terms bronze and smoke may well be used in their place, as in
+describing or attempting to describe the wonderful colouring of such
+flowers as Spanish Iris, and the varieties of Iris of the _squalens_
+section. But often in describing a flower a reference to texture much
+helps and strengthens the colour-word. I have often described the modest
+little _Iris tuberosa_ as a flower made of green satin and black velvet.
+The green portion is only slightly green, but is entirely green satin,
+and the black of the velvet is barely black, but is quite
+black-velvet-like. The texture of the flower of _Ornithogalum nutans_ is
+silver satin, neither very silvery nor very satin-like, and yet so
+nearly suggesting the texture of both that the words may well be used in
+speaking of it. Indeed, texture plays so important a part in the
+appearance of colour-surface, that one can hardly think of colour
+without also thinking of texture. A piece of black satin and a piece of
+black velvet may be woven of the same batch of material, but when the
+satin is finished and the velvet cut, the appearance is often so
+dissimilar that they may look quite different in colour. A working
+painter is never happy if you give him an oil-colour pattern to match in
+distemper; he must have it of the same texture, or he will not undertake
+to get it like.
+
+What a wonderful range of colouring there is in black alone to a trained
+colour-eye! There is the dull brown-black of soot, and the velvety
+brown-black of the bean-flower's blotch; to my own eye, I have never
+found anything so entirely black in a natural product as the patch on
+the lower petals of _Iris iberica_. Is it not Ruskin who says of
+Velasquez, that there is more colour in his black than in many another
+painter's whole palette? The blotch of the bean-flower appears black at
+first, till you look at it close in the sunlight, and then you see its
+rich velvety texture, so nearly like some of the brown-velvet markings
+on butterflies' wings. And the same kind of rich colour and texture
+occurs again on some of the tough flat half-round funguses, marked with
+shaded rings, that grow out of old posts, and that I always enjoy as
+lessons of lovely colour-harmony of grey and brown and black.
+
+Much to be regretted is the disuse of the old word murrey, now only
+employed in heraldry. It stands for a dull red-purple, such as appears
+in the flower of the Virginian Allspice, and in the native
+Hound's-tongue, and often in seedling Auriculas. A fine strong-growing
+border Auricula was given to me by my valued friend the Curator of the
+Trinity College Botanic Garden, Dublin, to which he had given the
+excellently descriptive name, "Old Murrey."
+
+Sage-green is a good colour-word, for, winter or summer, the sage-leaves
+change but little. Olive-green is not so clear, though it has come by
+use to stand for a brownish green, like the glass of a wine-bottle held
+up to the light, but perhaps bottle-green is the better word. And it is
+not clear what part or condition of the olive is meant, for the ripe
+fruit is nearly black, and the tree in general, and the leaf in detail,
+are of a cool-grey colour. Perhaps the colour-word is taken from the
+colour of the unripe fruit pickled in brine, as we see them on the
+table. Grass-green any one may understand, but I am always puzzled by
+apple-green. Apples are of so many different greens, to say nothing of
+red and yellow; and as for pea-green, I have no idea what it means.
+
+I notice in plant-lists the most reckless and indiscriminate use of the
+words purple, violet, mauve, lilac, and lavender, and as they are all
+related, I think they should be used with the greater caution. I should
+say that mauve and lilac cover the same ground; the word mauve came into
+use within my recollection. It is French for mallow, and the flower of
+the wild plant may stand as the type of what the word means. Lavender
+stands for a colder or bluer range of pale purples, with an inclination
+to grey; it is a useful word, because the whole colour of the flower
+spike varies so little. Violet stands for the dark garden violet, and I
+always think of the grand colour of _Iris reticulata_ as an example of a
+rich violet-purple. But purple equally stands for this, and for many
+shades redder.
+
+Snow-white is very vague. There is nearly always so much blue about the
+colour of snow, from its crystalline surface and partial transparency,
+and the texture is so unlike that of any kind of flower, that the
+comparison is scarcely permissible. I take it that the use of
+"snow-white" is, like that of "golden-yellow," more symbolical than
+descriptive, meaning any white that gives an impression of purity.
+Nearly all white flowers are yellowish-white, and the comparatively few
+that are bluish-white, such, for example, as _Omphalodes verna_, are of
+a texture so different from snow that one cannot compare them at all. I
+should say that most white flowers are near the colour of chalk; for
+although the word chalky-white has been used in rather a contemptuous
+way, the colour is really a very beautiful warm white, but by no means
+an intense white. The flower that always looks to me the whitest is that
+of _Iberis sempervirens_. The white is dead and hard, like a piece of
+glazed stoneware, quite without play or variation, and hence
+uninteresting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE SCENTS OF THE GARDEN
+
+
+The sweet scents of a garden are by no means the least of its many
+delights. Even January brings _Chimonanthus fragrans_, one of the
+sweetest and strongest scented of the year's blooms--little
+half-transparent yellowish bells on an otherwise naked-looking wall
+shrub. They have no stalks, but if they are floated in a shallow dish of
+water, they last well for several days, and give off a powerful
+fragrance in a room.
+
+During some of the warm days that nearly always come towards the end of
+February, if one knows where to look in some sunny, sheltered corner of
+a hazel copse, there will be sure to be some Primroses, and the first
+scent of the year's first Primrose is no small pleasure. The garden
+Primroses soon follow, and, meanwhile, in all open winter weather there
+have been Czar Violets and _Iris stylosa_, with its delicate scent,
+faintly violet-like, but with a dash of tulip. _Iris reticulata_ is also
+sweet, with a still stronger perfume of the violet character. But of all
+Irises I know, the sweetest to smell is a later blooming one, _I.
+graminea_. Its small purple flowers are almost hidden among the thick
+mass of grassy foliage which rises high above the bloom; but they are
+worth looking for, for the sake of the sweet and rather penetrating
+scent, which is exactly like that of a perfectly-ripened plum.
+
+All the scented flowers of the Primrose tribe are delightful--Primrose,
+Polyanthus, Auricula, Cowslip. The actual sweetness is most apparent in
+the Cowslip; in the Auricula it has a pungency, and at the same time a
+kind of veiled mystery, that accords with the clouded and
+curiously-blended colourings of many of the flowers.
+
+Sweetbriar is one of the strongest of the year's early scents, and
+closely following is the woodland incense of the Larch, both freely
+given off and far-wafted, as is also that of the hardy Daphnes. The
+first quarter of the year also brings the bloom of most of the deciduous
+Magnolias, all with a fragrance nearly allied to that of the large one
+that blooms late in summer, but not so strong and heavy.
+
+The sweetness of a sun-baked bank of Wallflower belongs to April.
+Daffodils, lovely as they are, must be classed among flowers of rather
+rank smell, and yet it is welcome, for it means spring-time, with its
+own charm and its glad promise of the wealth of summer bloom that is
+soon to come. The scent of the Jonquil, Poeticus, and Polyanthus
+sections are best, Jonquil perhaps best of all, for it is without the
+rather coarse scent of the Trumpets and Nonsuch, and also escapes the
+penetrating lusciousness of _poeticus_ and _tazetta_, which in the
+south of Europe is exaggerated in the case of _tazetta_ into something
+distinctly unpleasant.
+
+What a delicate refinement there is in the scent of the wild
+Wood-Violet; it is never overdone. It seems to me to be quite the best
+of all the violet-scents, just because of its temperate quality. It
+gives exactly enough, and never that perhaps-just-a-trifle-too-much that
+may often be noticed about a bunch of frame-Violets, and that also in
+the south is intensified to a degree that is distinctly undesirable. For
+just as colour may be strengthened to a painful glare, and sound may be
+magnified to a torture, so even a sweet scent may pass its appointed
+bounds and become an overpoweringly evil smell. Even in England several
+of the Lilies, whose smell is delicious in open-air wafts, cannot be
+borne in a room. In the south of Europe a Tuberose cannot be brought
+indoors, and even at home I remember one warm wet August how a plant of
+Balm of Gilead (_Cedronella triphylla_) had its always powerful but
+usually agreeably aromatic smell so much exaggerated that it smelt
+exactly like coal-gas! A brother in Jamaica writes of the large white
+Jasmine: "It does not do to bring it indoors here; the scent is too
+strong. One day I thought there was a dead rat under the floor (a thing
+which did happen once), and behold, it was a glassful of fresh white
+Jasmine that was the offender!"
+
+While on this less pleasant part of the subject, I cannot help thinking
+of the horrible smell of the Dragon Arum; and yet how fitting an
+accompaniment it is to the plant, for if ever there was a plant that
+looked wicked and repellent, it is this; and yet, like Medusa, it has
+its own kind of fearful beauty. In this family the smell seems to
+accompany the appearance, and to diminish in unpleasantness as the
+flower increases in amiability; for in our native wild Arum the smell,
+though not exactly nice, is quite innocuous, and in the beautiful white
+Arum or _Calla_ of our greenhouses there is as little scent as a flower
+can well have, especially one of such large dimensions. In Fungi the bad
+smell is nearly always an indication of poisonous nature, so that it
+would seem to be given as a warning. But it has always been a matter of
+wonder to me why the root of the harmless and friendly Laurustinus
+should have been given a particularly odious smell--a smell I would
+rather not attempt to describe. On moist warmish days in mid-seasons I
+have sometimes had a whiff of the same unpleasantness from the bushes
+themselves; others of the same tribe have it in a much lesser degree.
+There is a curious smell about the yellow roots of Berberis, not exactly
+nasty, and a strong odour, not really offensive, but that I personally
+dislike, about the root of _Chrysanthemum maximum_. On the other hand, I
+always enjoy digging up, dividing, and replanting the _Asarums_, both
+the common European and the American kinds; their roots have a pleasant
+and most interesting smell, a good deal like mild pepper and ginger
+mixed, but more strongly aromatic. The same class of smell, but much
+fainter, and always reminding me of very good and delicate pepper, I
+enjoy in the flowers of the perennial Lupines. The only other hardy
+flowers I can think of whose smell is distinctly offensive are _Lilium
+pyrenaicum_, smelling like a mangy dog, and some of the _Schizanthus_,
+that are redolent of dirty hen-house.
+
+There is a class of scent that, though it can neither be called sweet
+nor aromatic, is decidedly pleasing and interesting. Such is that of
+Bracken and other Fern-fronds, Ivy-leaves, Box-bushes, Vine-blossom,
+Elder-flowers, and Fig-leaves. There are the sweet scents that are
+wholly delightful--most of the Roses, Honeysuckle, Primrose, Cowslip,
+Mignonette, Pink, Carnation, Heliotrope, Lily of the Valley, and a host
+of others; then there is a class of scent that is intensely powerful,
+and gives an impression almost of intemperance or voluptuousness, such
+as Magnolia, Tuberose, Gardenia, Stephanotis, and Jasmine; it is strange
+that these all have white flowers of thick leathery texture. In
+strongest contrast to these are the sweet, wholesome, wind-wafted scents
+of clover-field, of bean-field, and of new-mown hay, and the soft
+honey-scent of sun-baked heather, and of a buttercup meadow in April.
+Still more delicious is the wind-swept sweetness of a wood of Larch or
+of Scotch Fir, and the delicate perfume of young-leaved Birch, or the
+heavier scent of the flowering Lime. Out on the moorlands, besides the
+sweet heather-scent, is that of flowering Broom and Gorse and of the
+Bracken, so like the first smell of the sea as you come near it after a
+long absence.
+
+How curiously scents of flowers and leaves fall into classes--often one
+comes upon related smells running into one another in not necessarily
+related plants. There is a kind of scent that I sometimes meet with,
+about clumps of Brambles, a little like the waft of a Fir wood; it
+occurs again (quite naturally) in the first taste of blackberry jam, and
+then turns up again in Sweet Sultan. It is allied to the smell of the
+dying Strawberry leaves.
+
+The smell of the Primrose occurs again in a much stronger and ranker
+form in the root-stock, and the same thing happens with the Violets and
+Pansies; in Violets the plant-smell is pleasant, though without the high
+perfume of the flower; but the smell of an overgrown bed of Pansy-plants
+is rank to offensiveness.
+
+Perhaps the most delightful of all flower scents are those whose tender
+and delicate quality makes one wish for just a little more. Such a scent
+is that of Apple-blossom, and of some small Pansies, and of the wild
+Rose and the Honeysuckle. Among Roses alone the variety and degree of
+sweet scent seems almost infinite. To me the sweetest of all is the
+Provence, the old Cabbage Rose of our gardens. When something
+approaching this appears, as it frequently does, among the hybrid
+perpetuals, I always greet it as the real sweet Rose smell. One expects
+every Rose to be fragrant, and it is a disappointment to find that such
+a beautiful flower as Baroness Rothschild is wanting in the sweet scent
+that would be the fitting complement of its incomparable form, and to
+perceive in so handsome a Rose as Malmaison a heavy smell of decidedly
+bad quality. But such cases are not frequent.
+
+There is much variety in the scent of the Tea-Roses, the actual tea
+flavour being strongest in the Dijon class. Some have a powerful scent
+that is very near that of a ripe Nectarine; of this the best example I
+know is the old rose Goubault. The half-double red Gloire de Rosamene
+has a delightful scent of a kind that is rare among Roses. It has a good
+deal of the quality of that mysterious and delicious smell given off by
+the dying strawberry leaves, aromatic, pungent, and delicately refined,
+searching and powerful, and yet subtle and elusive--the best sweet smell
+of all the year. One cannot have it for the seeking; it comes as it
+will--a scent that is sad as a forecast of the inevitable certainty of
+the flower-year's waning, and yet sweet with the promise of its timely
+new birth.
+
+Sometimes I have met with a scent of somewhat the same mysterious and
+aromatic kind when passing near a bank clothed with the great St. John's
+Wort. As this also occurs in early autumn, I suppose it to be occasioned
+by the decay of some of the leaves. And there is a small yellow-flowered
+Potentilla that has a scent of the same character, but always freely and
+willingly given off--a humble-looking little plant, well worth growing
+for its sweetness, that much to my regret I have lost.
+
+I observe that when a Rose exists in both single and double form the
+scent is increased in the double beyond the proportion that one would
+expect. _Rosa lucida_ in the ordinary single state has only a very
+slight scent; in the lovely double form it is very sweet, and has
+acquired somewhat of the Moss-rose smell. The wild Burnet-rose (_R.
+spinosissima_) has very little smell; but the Scotch Briars, its garden
+relatives, have quite a powerful fragrance, a pale flesh-pink kind,
+whose flowers are very round and globe-like, being the sweetest of all.
+
+But of all the sweet scents of bush or flower, the ones that give me the
+greatest pleasure are those of the aromatic class, where they seem to
+have a wholesome resinous or balsamic base, with a delicate perfume
+added. When I pick and crush in my hand a twig of Bay, or brush against
+a bush of Rosemary, or tread upon a tuft of Thyme, or pass through
+incense-laden brakes of Cistus, I feel that here is all that is best and
+purest and most refined, and nearest to poetry, in the range of faculty
+of the sense of smell.
+
+The scents of all these sweet shrubs, many of them at home in dry and
+rocky places in far-away lower latitudes, recall in a way far more
+distinct than can be done by a mere mental effort of recollection,
+rambles of years ago in many a lovely southern land--in the islands of
+the Greek Archipelago, beautiful in form, and from a distance looking
+bare and arid, and yet with a scattered growth of lowly, sweet-smelling
+bush and herb, so that as you move among them every plant seems full of
+sweet sap or aromatic gum, and as you tread the perfumed carpet the
+whole air is scented; then of dusky groves of tall Cypress and Myrtle,
+forming mysterious shadowy woodland temples that unceasingly offer up an
+incense of their own surpassing fragrance, and of cooler hollows in the
+same lands and in the nearer Orient, where the Oleander grows like the
+willow of the north, and where the Sweet Bay throws up great tree-like
+suckers of surprising strength and vigour. It is only when one has seen
+it grow like this that one can appreciate the full force of the old
+Bible simile. Then to find oneself standing (while still on earth) in a
+grove of giant Myrtles fifteen feet high is like having a little chink
+of the door of heaven opened, as if to show a momentary glimpse of what
+good things may be beyond!
+
+Among the sweet shrubs from the nearer of these southern regions, one of
+the best for English gardens is _Cistus laurifolius_. Its wholesome,
+aromatic sweetness is freely given off, even in winter. In this, as in
+its near relative, _C. ladaniferus_, the scent seems to come from the
+gummy surface, and not from the body of the leaf. _Caryopteris
+Mastacanthus_, the Mastic plant, from China, one of the few shrubs that
+flower in autumn, has strongly-scented woolly leaves, something like
+turpentine, but more refined. _Ledum palustre_ has a delightful scent
+when its leaves are bruised. The wild Bog-myrtle, so common in Scotland,
+has almost the sweetness of the true Myrtle, as has also the
+broad-leaved North American kind, and the Candleberry Gale (_Comptonia
+asplenifolia_) from the same country. The myrtle-leaved Rhododendron is
+a dwarf shrub of neat habit, whose bruised leaves have also a
+myrtle-like smell, though it is less strong than in the Gales. I wonder
+why the leaves of nearly all the hardy aromatic shrubs are of a hard,
+dry texture; the exceptions are so few that it seems to be a law.
+
+If my copse were some acres larger I should like nothing better than to
+make a good-sized clearing, laying out to the sun, and to plant it with
+these aromatic bushes and herbs. The main planting should be of Cistus
+and Rosemary and Lavender, and for the shadier edges the Myrtle-leaved
+Rhododendron, and _Ledum palustre_, and the three Bog-myrtles. Then
+again in the sun would be Hyssop and Catmint, and Lavender-cotton and
+Southernwood, with others of the scented Artemisias, and Sage and
+Marjoram. All the ground would be carpeted with Thyme and Basil and
+others of the dwarfer sweet-herbs. There would be no regular paths, but
+it would be so planted that in most parts one would have to brush up
+against the sweet bushes, and sometimes push through them, as one does
+on the thinner-clothed of the mountain slopes of southern Italy.
+
+Among the many wonders of the vegetable world are the flowers that hang
+their heads and seem to sleep in the daytime, and that awaken as the sun
+goes down, and live their waking life at night. And those that are most
+familiar in our gardens have powerful perfumes, except the Evening
+Primrose (_Oenothera_), which has only a milder sweetness. It is vain to
+try and smell the night-given scent in the daytime; it is either
+withheld altogether, or some other smell, quite different, and not
+always pleasant, is there instead. I have tried hard in daytime to get a
+whiff of the night sweetness of _Nicotiana affinis_, but can only get
+hold of something that smells like a horse! Some of the best of the
+night-scents are those given by the Stocks and Rockets. They are sweet
+in the hand in the daytime, but the best of the sweet scent seems to be
+like a thin film on the surface. It does not do to smell them too
+vigorously, for, especially in Stocks and Wallflowers, there is a
+strong, rank, cabbage-like under-smell. But in the sweetness given off
+so freely in the summer evening there is none of this; then they only
+give their very best.
+
+But of all the family, the finest fragrance comes from the small annual
+Night-scented Stock (_Matthiola bicornis_), a plant that in daytime is
+almost ugly; for the leaves are of a dull-grey colour, and the flowers
+are small and also dull-coloured, and they are closed and droop and look
+unhappy. But when the sun has set the modest little plant seems to come
+to life; the grey foliage is almost beautiful in its harmonious relation
+to the half-light; the flowers stand up and expand, and in the early
+twilight show tender colouring of faint pink and lilac, and pour out
+upon the still night-air a lavish gift of sweetest fragrance; and the
+modest little plant that in strong sunlight looked unworthy of a place
+in the garden, now rises to its appointed rank and reigns supreme as its
+prime delight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS
+
+
+Several times during these notes I have spoken in a disparaging manner
+of the show-table; and I have not done so lightly, but with all the care
+and thought and power of observation that my limited capacity is worth;
+and, broadly, I have come to this: that shows, such as those at the
+fortnightly meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society, and their more
+important one in the early summer, whose object is to bring together
+beautiful flowers of all kinds, to a place where they may be seen, are
+of the utmost value; and that any shows anywhere for a like purpose, and
+especially where there are no money prizes, are also sure to be helpful.
+And the test question I put to myself at any show is this, Does this
+really help the best interests of horticulture? And as far as I can see
+that it does this, I think the show right and helpful; and whenever it
+does not, I think it harmful and misleading.
+
+The love of gardening has so greatly grown and spread within the last
+few years, that the need of really good and beautiful garden flowers is
+already far in advance of the demand for the so-called "florists"
+flowers, by which I mean those that find favour in the exclusive shows
+of Societies for the growing and exhibition of such flowers as Tulips,
+Carnations, Dahlias, and Chrysanthemums. In support of this I should
+like to know what proportion of demand there is, in Dahlias, for
+instance, between the show kinds, whose aim and object is the
+show-table, and the decorative kinds, that are indisputably better for
+garden use. Looking at the catalogue of a leading Dahlia nursery, I find
+that the decorative kinds fill ten pages, while the show kinds,
+including Pompones, fill only three. Is not this some indication of what
+is wanted in gardens?
+
+I am of opinion that the show-table is unworthily used when its object
+is to be an end in itself, and that it should be only a means to a
+better end, and that when it exhibits what has become merely a "fancy,"
+it loses sight of its honourable position as a trustworthy exponent of
+horticulture, and has degenerated to a baser use. When, as in
+Chrysanthemum shows, the flowers on the board are of _no use anywhere
+but on that board_, and for the purpose of gaining a money prize, I hold
+that the show-table has a debased aim, and a debasing influence. Beauty,
+in all the best sense, is put aside in favour of set rules and
+measurements, and the production of a thing that is of no use or value;
+and individuals of a race of plants capable of producing the highest and
+most delightful forms of beauty, and of brightening our homes, and even
+gardens, during the dim days of early winter, are teased and tortured
+and fatted and bloated into ugly and useless monstrosities for no
+purpose but to gain money. And when private gardeners go to these shows
+and see how the prizes are awarded, and how all the glory is accorded to
+the first-prize bloated monster, can we wonder that the effect on their
+minds is confusing, if not absolutely harmful?
+
+Shows of Carnations and Pansies, where the older rules prevail, are
+equally misleading, where the single flowers are arrayed in a flat
+circle of paper. As with the Chrysanthemum, every sort of trickery is
+allowed in arranging the petals of the Carnation blooms: petals are
+pulled out or stuck in, and they are twisted about, and groomed and
+combed, and manipulated with special tools--"dressed," as the show-word
+has it--dressed so elaborately that the dressing only stops short of
+applying actual paint and perfumery. Already in the case of Carnations a
+better influence is being felt, and at the London shows there are now
+classes for border Carnations set up in long-stalked bunches just as
+they grow. It is only like this that their value as outdoor plants can
+be tested; for many of the show sorts have miserably weak stalks, and a
+very poor, lanky habit of growth.
+
+Then the poor Pansies have single blooms laid flat on white papers, and
+are only approved if they will lie quite flat and show an outline of a
+perfect circle. All that is most beautiful in a Pansy, the wing-like
+curves, the waved or slightly fluted radiations, the scarcely
+perceptible undulation of surface that displays to perfection the
+admirable delicacy of velvety texture; all the little tender tricks and
+ways that make the Pansy one of the best-loved of garden flowers; all
+this is overlooked, and not only passively overlooked, but overtly
+contemned. The show-pansy judge appears to have no eye, or brain, or
+heart, but to have in their place a pair of compasses with which to
+describe a circle! All idea of garden delight seems to be excluded, as
+this kind of judging appeals to no recognition of beauty for beauty's
+sake, but to hard systems of measurement and rigid arrangement and
+computation that one would think more applicable to astronomy or
+geometry than to any matter relating to horticulture.
+
+I do most strongly urge that beauty of the highest class should be the
+aim, and not anything of the nature of fashion or "fancy," and that
+every effort should be made towards the raising rather than the lowering
+of the standard of taste.
+
+The Societies which exist throughout the country are well organised;
+many have existed for a great number of years; they are the local
+sources of horticultural education, to which large circles of people
+naturally look for guidance; and though they produce--and especially the
+Rose shows--quantities of beautiful things, it cannot but be perceived
+by all who have had the benefit of some refinement of education, that
+in very many cases they either deliberately teach, or at any rate allow
+to be seen with their sanction, what cannot fail to be debasing to
+public taste.
+
+I will just take two examples to show how obvious methods of leading
+taste are not only overlooked, but even perverted; for it is not only in
+the individual blooms that much of the show-teaching is unworthy, but
+also in the training of the plants; so that a plant that by nature has
+some beauty of form, is not encouraged or even allowed to develop that
+beauty, but is trained into some shape that is not only foreign to its
+own nature, but is absolutely ugly and ungraceful, and entirely stupid.
+The natural habit of the Chrysanthemum is to grow in the form of several
+upright stems. They spring up sheaf-wise, straight upright for a time,
+and only bending a little outwards above, to give room for the branching
+heads of bloom. The stems are rather stiff, because they are half woody
+at the base. In the case of pot-plants it would seem right only so far
+to stake or train them as to give the necessary support by a few sticks
+set a little outwards at the top, so that each stem may lean a little
+over, after the manner of a Bamboo, when their clustered heads of flower
+would be given enough room, and be seen to the greatest advantage.
+
+But at shows, the triumph of the training art seems to be to drag the
+poor thing round and round over an internal scaffolding of sticks, with
+an infinite number of ties and cross-braces, so that it makes a sort of
+shapeless ball, and to arrange the flowers so that they are equally
+spotted all over it, by tying back some almost to snapping-point, and by
+dragging forward others to the verge of dislocation. I have never seen
+anything so ugly in the way of potted plants as a certain kind of
+Chrysanthemum that has incurved flowers of a heavy sort of dull
+leaden-looking red-purple colour trained in this manner. Such a sight
+gives me a feeling of shame, not unmixed with wrathful indignation. I
+ask myself, What is it for? and I get no answer. I ask a practical
+gardener what it is for, and he says, "Oh, it is one of the ways they
+are trained for shows." I ask him, Does he think it pretty, or is it any
+use? and he says, "Well, they think it makes a nice variety;" and when I
+press him further, and say I consider it a very nasty variety, and does
+he think nasty varieties are better than none, the question is beyond
+him, and he smiles vaguely and edges away, evidently thinking my
+conversation perplexing, and my company undesirable. I look again at the
+unhappy plant, and see its poor leaves fat with an unwholesome obesity,
+and seeming to say, We were really a good bit mildewed, but have been
+doctored up for the show by being crammed and stuffed with artificial
+aliment!
+
+My second example is that of _Azalea indica_. What is prettier in a room
+than one of these in its little tree form, a true tree, with tiny trunk
+and wide-spreading branches, and its absurdly large and lovely flowers?
+Surely it is the most perfect room ornament that we can have in tree
+shape in a moderate-sized pot; and where else can one see a tree loaded
+with lovely bloom whose individual flowers have a diameter equal to five
+times that of the trunk?
+
+But the show decrees that all this is wrong, and that the tiny, brittle
+branches must be trained stiffly round till the shape of the plant shows
+as a sort of cylinder. Again I ask myself, What is this for? What does
+it teach? Can it be really to teach with deliberate intention that
+instead of displaying its natural and graceful tree form it should aim
+at a more desirable kind of beauty, such as that of the chimney-pot or
+drain-pipe, and that this is so important that it is right and laudable
+to devote to it much time and delicate workmanship?
+
+I cannot but think, as well as hope, that the strong influences for good
+that are now being brought to bear on all departments of gardening may
+reach this class of show, for there are already more hopeful signs in
+the admission of classes for groups arranged for decoration.
+
+The prize-show system no doubt creates its own evils, because the
+judges, and those who frame the schedules, have been in most cases men
+who have a knowledge of flowers, but who are not people of cultivated
+taste, and in deciding what points are to constitute the merits of a
+flower they have to take such qualities as are within the clearest
+understanding of people of average intelligence and average
+education--such, for instance, as size that can be measured, symmetry
+that can be easily estimated, thickness of petal that can be felt, and
+such qualities of colour as appeal most strongly to the uneducated eye;
+so that a flower may possess features or qualities that endow it with
+the highest beauty, but that exclude it, because the hard and narrow
+limits of the show-laws provide no means of dealing with it. It is,
+therefore, thrown out, not because they have any fault to find with it,
+but because it does not concern them; and the ordinary gardener, to
+whose practice it might be of the highest value, accepting the verdict
+of the show-judge as an infallible guide, also treats it with contempt
+and neglect.
+
+Now, all this would not so much matter if it did not delude those whose
+taste is not sufficiently educated to enable them to form an opinion of
+their own in accordance with the best and truest standards of beauty;
+for I venture to repeat that what we have to look for for the benefit of
+our gardens, and for our own bettering and increase of happiness in
+those gardens, are things that are beautiful, rather than things that
+are round, or straight, or thick, still less than for those that are
+new, or curious, or astonishing. For all these false gods are among us,
+and many are they who are willing to worship.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+NOVELTY AND VARIETY
+
+
+When I look back over thirty years of gardening, I see what an
+extraordinary progress there has been, not only in the introduction of
+good plants new to general cultivation, but also in the home production
+of improved kinds of old favourites. In annual plants alone there has
+been a remarkable advance. And here again, though many really beautiful
+things are being brought forward, there seems always to be an undue
+value assigned to a fresh development, on the score of its novelty.
+
+Now it seems to me, that among the thousands of beautiful things already
+at hand for garden use, there is no merit whatever in novelty or variety
+unless the thing new or different is distinctly more beautiful, or in
+some such way better than an older thing of the same class.
+
+And there seems to be a general wish among seed growers just now to
+dwarf all annual plants. Now, when a plant is naturally of a diffuse
+habit, the fixing of a dwarfer variety may be a distinct gain to
+horticulture--it may just make a good garden plant out of one that was
+formerly of indifferent quality; but there seems to me to be a kind of
+stupidity in inferring from this that all annuals are the better for
+dwarfing. I take it that the bedding system has had a good deal to do
+with it. It no doubt enables ignorant gardeners to use a larger variety
+of plants as senseless colour-masses, but it is obvious that many, if
+not most, of the plants are individually made much uglier by the
+process. Take, for example, one of the dwarfest Ageratums: what a silly
+little dumpy, formless, pincushion of a thing it is! And then the
+dwarfest of the China Asters. Here is a plant (whose chief weakness
+already lies in a certain over-stiffness) made stiffer and more
+shapeless still by dwarfing and by cramming with too many petals. The
+Comet Asters of later years are a much-improved type of flower, with a
+looser shape and a certain degree of approach to grace and beauty. When
+this kind came out it was a noteworthy novelty, not because it was a
+novelty, but because it was a better and more beautiful thing. Also
+among the same Asters the introduction of a better class of red
+colouring, first of the blood-red and then of the so-called scarlet
+shades, was a good variety, because it was the distinct bettering of the
+colour of a popular race of garden-flowers, whose red and pink
+colourings had hitherto been of a bad and rank quality.
+
+It is quite true that here and there the dwarf kind is a distinctly
+useful thing, as in the dwarf Nasturtiums. In this grand plant one is
+glad to have dwarf ones as well as the old trailing kinds. I even
+confess to a certain liking for the podgy little dwarf Snapdragons; they
+are ungraceful little dumpy things, but they happen to have come in some
+tender colourings of pale yellow and pale pink, that give them a kind of
+absurd prettiness, and a certain garden-value. I also look at them as a
+little floral joke that is harmless and not displeasing, but they cannot
+for a moment compare in beauty with the free-growing Snapdragon of the
+older type. This I always think one of the best and most interesting and
+admirable of garden-plants. Its beauty is lost if it is crowded up among
+other things in a border; it should be grown in a dry wall or steep
+rocky bank, where its handsome bushy growth and finely-poised spikes of
+bloom can be well seen.
+
+[Illustration: TALL SNAPDRAGONS GROWING IN A DRY WALL.]
+
+[Illustration: MULLEINS GROWING IN THE FACE OF DRY WALL. (_See "Old
+Wall," page 116._)]
+
+One of the annuals that I think is entirely spoilt by dwarfing is
+Love-in-a-Mist, a plant I hold in high admiration. Many years ago I came
+upon some of it in a small garden, of a type that I thought extremely
+desirable, with a double flower of just the right degree of fulness, and
+of an unusually fine colour. I was fortunate enough to get some seed,
+and have never grown any other, nor have I ever seen elsewhere any that
+I think can compare with it.
+
+The Zinnia is another fine annual that has been much spoilt by its
+would-be improvers. When a Zinnia has a hard, stiff, tall flower, with a
+great many rows of petals piled up one on top of another, and when its
+habit is dwarfed to a mean degree of squatness, it looks to me both ugly
+and absurd, whereas a reasonably double one, well branched, and two feet
+high, is a handsome plant.
+
+I also think that Stocks and Wallflowers are much handsomer when rather
+tall and branching. Dwarf Stocks, moreover, are invariably spattered
+with soil in heavy autumn rain.
+
+An example of the improver not knowing where to stop in the matter of
+colouring, always strikes me in the Gaillardias, and more especially in
+the perennial kind, that is increased by division as well as by seed.
+The flower is naturally of a strong orange-yellow colour, with a narrow
+ring of red round the centre. The improver has sought to increase the
+width of the red ring. Up to a certain point it makes a livelier and
+brighter-looking flower; but he has gone too far, and extended the red
+till it has become a red flower with a narrow yellow edge. The red also
+is of a rather dull and heavy nature, so that instead of a handsome
+yellow flower with a broad central ring, here is an ugly red one with a
+yellow border. There is no positive harm done, as the plant has been
+propagated at every stage of development, and one may choose what one
+will; but to see them together is an instructive lesson.
+
+No annual plant has of late years been so much improved as the Sweet
+Pea, and one reason why its charming beauty and scent are so enjoyable
+is, that they grow tall, and can be seen on a level with the eye. There
+can be no excuse whatever for dwarfing this, as has lately been done.
+There are already plenty of good flowering plants under a foot high, and
+the little dwarf white monstrosity, now being followed by coloured ones
+of the same habit, seems to me worthy of nothing but condemnation. It
+would be as right and sensible to dwarf a Hollyhock into a podgy mass a
+foot high, or a Pentstemon, or a Foxglove. Happily these have as yet
+escaped dwarfing, though I regret to see that a deformity that not
+unfrequently appears among garden Foxgloves, looking like a bell-shaped
+flower topping a stunted spike, appears to have been "fixed," and is
+being offered as a "novelty." Here is one of the clearest examples of a
+new development which is a distinct debasement of a naturally beautiful
+form, but which is nevertheless being pushed forward in trade: it has no
+merit whatever in itself, and is only likely to sell because it is new
+and curious.
+
+And all this parade of distortion and deformity comes about from the
+grower losing sight of beauty as the first consideration, or from his
+not having the knowledge that would enable him to determine what are the
+points of character in various plants most deserving of development, and
+in not knowing when or where to stop. Abnormal size, whether greatly
+above or much below the average, appeals to the vulgar and uneducated
+eye, and will always command its attention and wonderment. But then the
+production of the immense size that provokes astonishment, and the
+misapplied ingenuity that produces unusual dwarfing, are neither of them
+very high aims.
+
+And much as I feel grateful to those who improve garden flowers, I
+venture to repeat my strong conviction that their efforts in selection
+and other methods should be so directed as to keep in view the
+attainment of beauty in the first place, and as a point of honour; not
+to mere increase of size of bloom or compactness of habit--many plants
+have been spoilt by excess of both; not for variety or novelty as ends
+in themselves, but only to welcome them, and offer them, if they are
+distinctly of garden value in the best sense. For if plants are grown or
+advertised or otherwise pushed on any other account than that of their
+possessing some worthy form of beauty, they become of the same nature as
+any other article in trade that is got up for sale for the sole benefit
+of the seller, that is unduly lauded by advertisement, and that makes
+its first appeal to the vulgar eye by an exaggerated and showy pictorial
+representation; that will serve no useful purpose, and for which there
+is no true or healthy demand.
+
+No doubt much of it comes about from the unwholesome pressure of trade
+competition, which in a way obliges all to follow where some lead. I
+trust that my many good friends in the trade will understand that my
+remarks are not made in any personal sense whatever. I know that some of
+them feel much as I do on some of these points, but that in many ways
+they are helpless, being all bound in a kind of bondage to the general
+system. And there is one great evil that calls loudly for redress, but
+that will endure until some of the mightiest of them have the energy and
+courage to band themselves together and to declare that it shall no
+longer exist among them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+WEEDS AND PESTS
+
+
+Weeding is a delightful occupation, especially after summer rain, when
+the roots come up clear and clean. One gets to know how many and various
+are the ways of weeds--as many almost as the moods of human creatures.
+How easy and pleasant to pull up are the soft annuals like Chickweed and
+Groundsel, and how one looks with respect at deep-rooted things like
+Docks, that make one go and fetch a spade. Comfrey is another thing with
+a terrible root, and every bit must be got out, as it will grow again
+from the smallest scrap. And hard to get up are the two Bryonies, the
+green and the black, with such deep-reaching roots, that, if not weeded
+up within their first year, will have to be seriously dug out later. The
+white Convolvulus, one of the loveliest of native plants, has a most
+persistently running root, of which every joint will quickly form a new
+plant. Some of the worst weeds to get out are Goutweed and Coltsfoot.
+Though I live on a light soil, comparatively easy to clean, I have done
+some gardening in clay, and well know what a despairing job it is to
+get the bits of either of these roots out of the stiff clods.
+
+The most persistent weed in my soil is the small running Sheep's Sorrel.
+First it makes a patch, and then sends out thready running roots all
+round, a foot or more long; these, if not checked, establish new bases
+of operation, and so it goes on, always spreading farther and farther.
+When this happens in soft ground that can be hoed and weeded it matters
+less, but in the lawn it is a more serious matter. Its presence always
+denotes a poor, sandy soil of rather a sour quality.
+
+Goutweed is a pest in nearly all gardens, and very difficult to get out.
+When it runs into the root of some patch of hardy plant, if the plant
+can be spared, I find it best to send it at once to the burn-heap; or if
+it is too precious, there is nothing for it but to cut it all up and
+wash it out, to be sure that not the smallest particle of the enemy
+remains. Some weeds are deceiving--Sow-thistle, for instance, which has
+the look of promising firm hand-hold and easy extraction, but has a
+disappointing way of almost always breaking short off at the collar. But
+of all the garden weeds that are native plants I know none so persistent
+or so insidious as the Rampion Bell-flower (_Campanula Rapunculus_); it
+grows from the smallest thread of root, and it is almost impossible to
+see every little bit; for though the main roots are thick, and white,
+and fleshy, the fine side roots that run far abroad are very small, and
+of a reddish colour, and easily hidden in the brown earth.
+
+But some of the worst garden-weeds are exotics run wild. The common
+Grape Hyacinth sometimes overruns a garden and cannot be got rid of.
+_Sambucus ebulis_ is a plant to beware of, its long thong-like roots
+spreading far and wide, and coming up again far away from the parent
+stock. For this reason it is valuable for planting in such places as
+newly-made pond-heads, helping to tie the bank together. _Polygonum
+Sieboldi_ must also be planted with caution. The winter Heliotrope
+(_Petasites fragrans_) is almost impossible to get out when once it has
+taken hold, growing in the same way as its near relative the native
+Coltsfoot.
+
+But by far the most difficult plant to abolish or even keep in check
+that I know is _Ornithogalum nutans_. Beautiful as it is, and valuable
+as a cut flower, I will not have it in the garden. I think I may venture
+to say that in this soil, when once established, it cannot be
+eradicated. Each mature bulb makes a host of offsets, and the seed
+quickly ripens. When it is once in a garden it will suddenly appear in
+all sorts of different places. It is no use trying to dig it out. I have
+dug out the whole space of soil containing the patch, a barrow-load at a
+time, and sent it to the middle of the burn-heap, and put in fresh soil,
+and there it is again next year, nearly as thick as ever. I have dug up
+individual small patches with the greatest care, and got out every bulb
+and offset, and every bit of the whitish leaf stem, for I have such
+faith in its power of reproduction that I think every atom of this is
+capable of making a plant, only to find next year a thriving young tuft
+of the "grass" in the same place. And yet the bulb and underground stem
+are white, and the earth is brown, and I passed it all several times
+through my fingers, but all in vain. I confess that it beats me
+entirely.
+
+_Coronilla varia_ is a little plant that appears in catalogues among
+desirable Alpines, but is a very "rooty" and troublesome thing, and
+scarcely good enough for garden use, though pretty in a grassy bank
+where its rambling ways would not be objectionable. I once brought home
+from Brittany some roots of _Linaria repens_, that looked charming by a
+roadside, and planted them in a bit of Alpine garden, a planting that I
+never afterwards ceased to regret.
+
+I learnt from an old farmer a good way of getting rid of a bed of
+nettles--to thrash them down with a stick every time they grow up. If
+this is done about three times during the year, the root becomes so much
+weakened that it is easily forked out, or if the treatment is gone on
+with, the second year the nettles die. Thrashing with a stick is better
+than cutting, as it makes the plant bleed more; any mutilation of bruise
+or ragged tearing of fibre is more harmful to plant or tree than clean
+cutting.
+
+Of bird, beast, and insect pests we have plenty. First, and worst, are
+rabbits. They will gnaw and nibble anything and everything that is
+newly planted, even native things like Juniper, Scotch Fir, and Gorse.
+The necessity of wiring everything newly planted adds greatly to the
+labour and expense of the garden, and the unsightly grey wire-netting is
+an unpleasant eyesore. When plants or bushes are well established the
+rabbits leave them alone, though some families of plants are always
+irresistible--Pinks and Carnations, for instance, and nearly all
+Cruciferae, such as Wallflowers, Stocks, and Iberis. The only plants I
+know that they do not touch are Rhododendrons and Azaleas; they leave
+them for the hare, that is sure to get in every now and then, and who
+stands up on his long hind-legs, and will eat Rose-bushes quite high up.
+
+Plants eaten by a hare look as if they had been cut with a sharp knife;
+there is no appearance of gnawing or nibbling, no ragged edges of wood
+or frayed bark, but just a straight clean cut.
+
+Field mice are very troublesome. Some years they will nibble off the
+flower-buds of the Lent Hellebores; when they do this they have a
+curious way of collecting them and laying them in heaps. I have no idea
+why they do this, as they neither carry them away nor eat them
+afterwards; there the heaps of buds lie till they rot or dry up. They
+once stole all my Auricula seed in the same way. I had marked some good
+plants for seed, cutting off all the other flowers as soon as they went
+out of bloom. The seed was ripening, and I watched it daily, awaiting
+the moment for harvesting. But a few days before it was ready I went
+round and found the seed was all gone; it had been cut off at the top of
+the stalk, so that the umbel-shaped heads had been taken away whole. I
+looked about, and luckily found three slightly hollow places under the
+bank at the back of the border where the seed-heads had been piled in
+heaps. In this case it looked as if it had been stored for food; luckily
+it was near enough to ripeness for me to save my crop.
+
+The mice are also troublesome with newly-sown Peas, eating some
+underground, while sparrows nibble off others when just sprouted; and
+when outdoor Grapes are ripening mice run up the walls and eat them.
+Even when the Grapes are tied in oiled canvas bags they will eat through
+the bags to get at them, though I have never known them to gnaw through
+the newspaper bags that I now use in preference, and that ripen the
+Grapes as well. I am not sure whether it is mice or birds that pick off
+the flowers of the big bunch Primroses, but am inclined to think it is
+mice, because the stalks are cut low down.
+
+Pheasants are very bad gardeners; what they seem to enjoy most are
+Crocuses--in fact, it is no use planting them. I had once a nice
+collection of Crocus species. They were in separate patches, all along
+the edge of one border, in a sheltered part of the garden, where
+pheasants did not often come. One day when I came to see my Crocuses, I
+found where each patch had been a basin-shaped excavation and a few
+fragments of stalk or some part of the plant. They had begun at one end
+and worked steadily along, clearing them right out. They also destroyed
+a long bed of _Anemone fulgens_. First they took the flowers, and then
+the leaves, and lastly pecked up and ate the roots.
+
+But we have one grand consolation in having no slugs, at least hardly
+any that are truly indigenous; they do not like our dry, sandy heaths.
+Friends are very generous in sending them with plants, so that we have a
+moderate number that hang about frames and pot plants, though nothing
+much to boast of; but they never trouble seedlings in the open ground,
+and for this I can never be too thankful.
+
+Alas that the beautiful bullfinch should be so dire an enemy to
+fruit-trees, and also the pretty little tits! but so it is; and it is a
+sad sight to see a well-grown fruit-tree with all its fruit-buds pecked
+out and lying under it on the ground in a thin green carpet. We had some
+fine young cherry-trees in a small orchard that we cut down in despair
+after they had been growing twelve years. They were too large to net,
+and their space could not be spared just for the mischievous fun of the
+birds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE BEDDING FASHION AND ITS INFLUENCE
+
+
+It is curious to look back at the old days of bedding-out, when that and
+that only meant gardening to most people, and to remember how the
+fashion, beginning in the larger gardens, made its way like a great
+inundating wave, submerging the lesser ones, and almost drowning out the
+beauties of the many little flowery cottage plots of our English
+waysides. And one wonders how it all came about, and why the bedding
+system, admirable for its own purpose, should have thus outstepped its
+bounds, and have been allowed to run riot among gardens great and small
+throughout the land. But so it was, and for many years the fashion, for
+it was scarcely anything better, reigned supreme.
+
+It was well for all real lovers of flowers when some quarter of a
+century ago a strong champion of the good old flowers arose, and fought
+strenuously to stay the devastating tide, and to restore the healthy
+liking for the good old garden flowers. Many soon followed, and now one
+may say that all England has flocked to the standard. Bedding as an
+all-prevailing fashion is now dead; the old garden-flowers are again
+honoured and loved, and every encouragement is freely offered to those
+who will improve old kinds and bring forward others.
+
+And now that bedding as a fashion no longer exists, one can look at it
+more quietly and fairly, and see what its uses really are, for in its
+own place and way it is undoubtedly useful and desirable. Many great
+country-houses are only inhabited in winter, then perhaps for a week or
+two at Easter, and in the late summer. There is probably a house-party
+at Easter, and a succession of visitors in the late summer. A brilliant
+garden, visible from the house, dressed for spring and dressed for early
+autumn, is exactly what is wanted--not necessarily from any special love
+of flowers, but as a kind of bright and well-kept furnishing of the
+immediate environment of the house. The gardener delights in it; it is
+all routine work; so many hundreds or thousands of scarlet Geranium, of
+yellow Calceolaria, of blue Lobelia, of golden Feverfew, or of other
+coloured material. It wants no imagination; the comprehension of it is
+within the range of the most limited understanding; indeed its
+prevalence for some twenty years or more must have had a deteriorating
+influence on the whole class of private gardeners, presenting to them an
+ideal so easy of attainment and so cheap of mental effort.
+
+But bedding, though it is gardening of the least poetical or imaginative
+kind, can be done badly or beautifully. In the _parterre_ of the formal
+garden it is absolutely in place, and brilliantly-beautiful pictures
+can be made by a wise choice of colouring. I once saw, and can never
+forget, a bedded garden that was a perfectly satisfying example of
+colour-harmony; but then it was planned by the master, a man of the most
+refined taste, and not by the gardener. It was a _parterre_ that formed
+part of the garden in one of the fine old places in the Midland
+counties. I have no distinct recollection of the design, except that
+there was some principle of fan-shaped radiation, of which each extreme
+angle formed one centre. The whole garden was treated in one harmonious
+colouring of full yellow, orange, and orange-brown; half-hardy annuals,
+such as French and African Marigolds, Zinnias, and Nasturtiums, being
+freely used. It was the most noble treatment of one limited range of
+colouring I have ever seen in a garden; brilliant without being garish,
+and sumptuously gorgeous without the reproach of gaudiness--a precious
+lesson in temperance and restraint in the use of the one colour, and an
+admirable exposition of its powerful effect in the hands of a true
+artist.
+
+I think that in many smaller gardens a certain amount of bedding may be
+actually desirable; for where the owner of a garden has a special liking
+for certain classes or mixtures of plants, or wishes to grow them
+thoroughly well and enjoy them individually to the full, he will
+naturally grow them in separate beds, or may intentionally combine the
+beds, if he will, into some form of good garden effect. But the great
+fault of the bedding system when at its height was, that it swept over
+the country as a tyrannical fashion, that demanded, and for the time
+being succeeded in effecting, the exclusion of better and more
+thoughtful kinds of gardening; for I believe I am right in saying that
+it spread like an epidemic disease, and raged far and wide for nearly a
+quarter of a century.
+
+Its worst form of all was the "ribbon border," generally a line of
+scarlet Geranium at the back, then a line of Calceolaria, then a line of
+blue Lobelia, and lastly, a line of the inevitable Golden Feather
+Feverfew, or what our gardener used to call Featherfew. Could anything
+be more tedious or more stupid? And the ribbon border was at its worst
+when its lines were not straight, but waved about in weak and silly
+sinuations.
+
+And when bedding as a fashion was dead, when this false god had been
+toppled off his pedestal, and his worshippers had been converted to
+better beliefs, in turning and rending him they often went too far, and
+did injustice to the innocent by professing a dislike to many a good
+plant, and renouncing its use. It was not the fault of the Geranium or
+of the Calceolaria that they had been grievously misused and made to
+usurp too large a share of our garden spaces. Not once but many a time
+my visitors have expressed unbounded surprise when they saw these plants
+in my garden, saying, "I should have thought that you would have
+despised Geraniums." On the contrary, I love Geraniums. There are no
+plants to come near them for pot, or box, or stone basket, or for
+massing in any sheltered place in hottest sunshine; and I love their
+strangely-pleasant smell, and their beautiful modern colourings of soft
+scarlet and salmon-scarlet and salmon-pink, some of these grouping
+beautifully together. I have a space in connection with some formal
+stonework of steps, and tank, and paved walks, close to the house, on
+purpose for the summer placing of large pots of Geranium, with sometimes
+a few Cannas and Lilies. For a quarter of the year it is one of the best
+things in the garden, and delightful in colour. Then no plant does so
+well or looks so suitable in some earthen pots and boxes from Southern
+Italy that I always think the best that were ever made, their shape and
+well-designed ornament traditional from the Middle Ages, and probably
+from an even more remote antiquity.
+
+[Illustration: GERANIUMS IN NEAPOLITAN POTS.]
+
+There are, of course, among bedding Geraniums many of a bad, raw quality
+of colour, particularly among cold, hard pinks, but there are so many to
+choose from that these can easily be avoided.
+
+I remember some years ago, when the bedding fashion was going out,
+reading some rather heated discussions in the gardening papers about
+methods of planting out and arranging various tender but indispensable
+plants. Some one who had been writing about the errors of the bedding
+system wrote about planting some of these in isolated masses. He was
+pounced upon by another, who asked, "What is this but bedding?" The
+second writer was so far justified, in that it cannot be denied that any
+planting in beds is bedding. But then there is bedding and bedding--a
+right and a wrong way of applying the treatment. Another matter that
+roused the combative spirit of the captious critic was the filling up of
+bare spaces in mixed borders with Geraniums, Calceolarias, and other
+such plants. Again he said, "What is this but bedding? These are bedding
+plants." When I read this it seemed to me that his argument was, These
+plants may be very good plants in themselves, but because they have for
+some years been used wrongly, therefore they must not now be used
+rightly! In the case of my own visitors, when they have expressed
+surprise at my having "those horrid old bedding plants" in my garden, it
+seemed quite a new view when I pointed out that bedding plants were only
+passive agents in their own misuse, and that a Geranium was a Geranium
+long before it was a bedding plant! But the discussion raised in my mind
+a wish to come to some conclusion about the difference between bedding
+in the better and worse sense, in relation to the cases quoted, and it
+appeared to me to be merely in the choice between right and wrong
+placing--placing monotonously or stupidly, so as merely to fill the
+space, or placing with a feeling for "drawing" or proportion. For I had
+very soon found out that, if I had a number of things to plant
+anywhere, whether only to fill up a border or as a detached group, if I
+placed the things myself, carefully exercising what power of
+discrimination I might have acquired, it looked fairly right, but that
+if I left it to one of my garden people (a thing I rarely do) it looked
+all nohow, or like bedding in the worst sense of the word.
+
+[Illustration: SPACE IN STEP AND TANK-GARDEN FOR LILIES, CANNAS, AND
+GERANIUMS.]
+
+[Illustration: HYDRANGEAS IN TUBS, IN A PART OF THE SAME GARDEN.]
+
+Even the better ways of gardening do not wholly escape the debasing
+influence of fashion. Wild gardening is a delightful, and in good hands
+a most desirable, pursuit, but no kind of gardening is so difficult to
+do well, or is so full of pitfalls and of paths of peril. Because it has
+in some measure become fashionable, and because it is understood to mean
+the planting of exotics in wild places, unthinking people rush to the
+conclusion that they can put any garden plants into any wild places, and
+that that is wild gardening. I have seen woody places that were already
+perfect with their own simple charm just muddled and spoilt by a
+reckless planting of garden refuse, and heathy hillsides already
+sufficiently and beautifully clothed with native vegetation made to look
+lamentably silly by the planting of a nurseryman's mixed lot of exotic
+Conifers.
+
+In my own case, I have always devoted the most careful consideration to
+any bit of wild gardening I thought of doing, never allowing myself to
+decide upon it till I felt thoroughly assured that the place seemed to
+ask for the planting in contemplation, and that it would be distinctly a
+gain in pictorial value; so there are stretches of Daffodils in one
+part of the copse, while another is carpeted with Lily of the Valley. A
+cool bank is covered with Gaultheria, and just where I thought they
+would look well as little jewels of beauty, are spreading patches of
+Trillium and the great yellow Dog-tooth Violet. Besides these there are
+only some groups of the Giant Lily. Many other exotic plants could have
+been made to grow in the wooded ground, but they did not seem to be
+wanted; I thought where the copse looked well and complete in itself it
+was better left alone.
+
+But where the wood joins the garden some bold groups of flowering plants
+are allowed, as of Mullein in one part and Foxglove in another; for when
+standing in the free part of the garden, it is pleasant to project the
+sight far into the wood, and to let the garden influences penetrate here
+and there, the better to join the one to the other.
+
+[Illustration: MULLEIN (VERBASCUM PHLOMOIDES) AT THE EDGE OF THE FIR
+WOOD.]
+
+[Illustration: A GRASS PATH IN THE COPSE.]
+
+Under the Bracken in both pictures is a wide planting of Lily of the
+Valley, flowering in May before the Fern is up. (_See page 61._)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+MASTERS AND MEN
+
+
+Now that the owners of good places are for the most part taking a
+newly-awakened and newly-educated pleasure in the better ways of
+gardening, a frequent source of difficulty arises from the ignorance and
+obstructiveness of gardeners. The owners have become aware that their
+gardens may be sources of the keenest pleasure. The gardener may be an
+excellent man, perfectly understanding the ordinary routine of garden
+work; he may have been many years in his place; it is his settled home,
+and he is getting well on into middle life; but he has no understanding
+of the new order of things, and when the master, perfectly understanding
+what he is about, desires that certain things shall be done, and wishes
+to enjoy the pleasure of directing the work himself, and seeing it grow
+under his hand, he resents it as an interference, and becomes
+obstructive, or does what is required in a spirit of such sullen
+acquiescence that it is equal to open opposition. And I have seen so
+many gardens and gardeners that I have come to recognise certain types;
+and this one, among men of a certain age, is unfortunately frequent.
+Various degrees of ignorance and narrow-mindedness must no doubt be
+expected among the class that produces private gardeners. Their general
+education is not very wide to begin with, and their training is usually
+all in one groove, and the many who possess a full share of vanity get
+to think that, because they have exhausted the obvious sources of
+experience that have occurred within their reach, there is nothing more
+to learn, or to know, or to see, or to feel, or to enjoy. It is in this
+that the difficulty lies. The man has no doubt done his best through
+life; he has performed his duties well and faithfully, and can render a
+good account of his stewardship. It is no fault of his that more means
+of enlarging his mind have not been within his grasp, and, to a certain
+degree, he may be excused for not understanding that there is anything
+beyond; but if he is naturally vain and stubborn his case is hopeless.
+If, on the other hand, he is wise enough to know that he does not know
+everything, and modest enough to acknowledge it, as do all the greatest
+and most learned of men, he will then be eager to receive new and
+enlarged impressions, and his willing and intelligent co-operation will
+be a new source of interest in life both to himself and his employer, as
+well as a fresh spring of vitality in the life of the garden. I am
+speaking of the large middle class of private gardeners, not of those of
+the highest rank, who have among them men of good education and a large
+measure of refinement. From among these I think of the late Mr. Ingram
+of the Belvoir Castle gardens, with regret as for a personal friend, and
+also as of one who was a true garden artist.
+
+But most people who have fair-sized gardens have to do with the middle
+class of gardener, the man of narrow mental training. The master who,
+after a good many years of active life, is looking forward to settling
+in his home and improving and enjoying his garden, has had so different
+a training, a course of teaching so immeasurably wider and more
+enlightening. As a boy he was in a great public school, where, by
+wholesome friction with his fellows, he had any petty or personal
+nonsense knocked out of him while still in his early "teens." Then he
+goes to college, and whether studiously inclined or not, he is already
+in the great world, always widening his ideas and experience. Then
+perhaps he is in one of the active professions, or engaged in scientific
+or intellectual research, or in diplomacy, his ever-expanding
+intelligence rubbing up against all that is most enlightened and astute
+in men, or most profoundly inexplicable in matter. He may be at the same
+time cultivating his taste for literature and the fine arts, searching
+the libraries and galleries of the civilised world for the noblest and
+most divinely-inspired examples of human work, seeing with an eye that
+daily grows more keenly searching, and receiving and holding with a
+brain that ever gains a firmer grasp, and so acquires some measure of
+the higher critical faculty. He sees the ruined gardens of antiquity,
+colossal works of the rulers of Imperial Rome, and the later gardens of
+the Middle Ages (direct descendants of those greater and older ones),
+some of them still among the most beautiful gardens on earth. He sees
+how the taste for gardening grew and travelled, spreading through Europe
+and reaching England, first, no doubt, through her Roman invaders. He
+becomes more and more aware of what great and enduring happiness may be
+enjoyed in a garden, and how all that he can learn of it in the leisure
+intervals of his earlier maturity, and then in middle life, will help to
+brighten his later days, when he hopes to refine and make better the
+garden of the old home by a reverent application of what he has learnt.
+He thinks of the desecrated old bowling-green, cut up to suit the
+fashion of thirty years ago into a patchwork of incoherent star and
+crescent shaped beds; of how he will give it back its ancient character
+of unbroken repose; he thinks how he will restore the string of
+fish-ponds in the bottom of the wooded valley just below, now a rushy
+meadow with swampy hollows that once were ponds, and humpy mounds, ruins
+of the ancient dikes; of how the trees will stand reflected in the still
+water; and how he will live to see again in middle hours of summer days,
+as did the monks of old, the broad backs of the golden carp basking just
+below the surface of the sun-warmed water.
+
+And such a man as this comes home some day and finds the narrow-minded
+gardener, who believes that he already knows all that can be known about
+gardening, who thinks that the merely technical part, which he
+perfectly understands, is all that there is to be known and practised,
+and that his crude ideas about arrangement of flowers are as good as
+those of any one else. And a man of this temperament cannot be induced
+to believe, and still less can he be made to understand, that all that
+he knows is only the means to a further and higher end, and that what he
+can show of a completed garden can only reach to an average dead-level
+of dulness compared with what may come of the life-giving influence of
+one who has the mastery of the higher garden knowledge.
+
+Moreover, he either forgets, or does not know, what is the main purpose
+of a garden, namely, that it is to give its owner the best and highest
+kind of earthly pleasure. Neither is he enlightened enough to understand
+that the master can take a real and intelligent interest in planning and
+arranging, and in watching the working out in detail. His small-minded
+vanity can only see in all this a distrust in his own powers and an
+intentional slight cast on his ability, whereas no such idea had ever
+entered the master's mind.
+
+Though there are many of this kind of gardener (and with their
+employers, if they have the patience to retain them in their service, I
+sincerely condole), there are happily many of a widely-different nature,
+whose minds are both supple and elastic and intelligently receptive, who
+are eager to learn and to try what has not yet come within the range of
+their experience, who show a cheerful readiness to receive a fresh
+range of ideas, and a willing alacrity in doing their best to work them
+out. Such a servant as this warms his master's heart, and it would do
+him good to hear, as I have many times heard, the terms in which the
+master speaks of him. For just as the educated man feels contempt for
+the vulgar pretension that goes with any exhibition of ignorant vanity,
+so the evidence of the higher qualities commands his respect and warm
+appreciation. Among the gardeners I have known, five such men come
+vividly to my recollection--good men all, with a true love of flowers,
+and its reflection of happiness written on their kindly faces.
+
+But then, on the other hand, frequent causes of irritation arise between
+master and man from the master's ignorance and unreasonable demands. For
+much as the love of gardening has grown of late, there are many owners
+who have no knowledge of it whatever. I have more than once had visitors
+who complained of their gardeners, as I thought quite unreasonably, on
+their own showing. For it is not enough to secure the services of a
+thoroughly able man, and to pay good wages, and to provide every sort of
+appliance, if there is no reasonable knowledge of what it is right and
+just to expect. I have known a lady, after paying a round of visits in
+great houses, complain of her gardener. She had seen at one place
+remarkably fine forced strawberries, at another some phenomenal frame
+Violets, and at a third immense Malmaison Carnations; whereas her own
+gardener did not excel in any of these, though she admitted that he was
+admirable for Grapes and Chrysanthemums. "If the others could do all
+these things to perfection," she argued, "why could not he do them?" She
+expected her gardener to do equally well all that she had seen best done
+in the other big places. It was in vain that I pleaded in defence of her
+man that all gardeners were human creatures, and that it was in the
+nature of such creatures to have individual aptitudes and special
+preferences, and that it was to be expected that each man should excel
+in one thing, or one thing at a time, and so on; but it was of no use,
+and she would not accept any excuse or explanation.
+
+I remember another example of a visitor who had a rather large place,
+and a gardener who had as good a knowledge of hardy plants as one could
+expect. My visitor had lately got the idea that he liked hardy flowers,
+though he had scarcely thrown off the influence of some earlier heresy
+which taught that they were more or less contemptible--the sort of thing
+for cottage gardens; still, as they were now in fashion, he thought he
+had better have them. We were passing along my flower-border, just then
+in one of its best moods of summer beauty, and when its main occupants,
+three years planted, had come to their full strength, when, speaking of
+a large flower-border he had lately had made, he said, "I told my fellow
+last autumn to get anything he liked, and yet it is perfectly wretched.
+It is not as if I wanted anything out of the way; I only want a lot of
+common things like that," waving a hand airily at my precious border,
+while scarcely taking the trouble to look at it.
+
+And I have had another visitor of about the same degree of appreciative
+insight, who, contemplating some cherished garden picture, the
+consummation of some long-hoped-for wish, the crowning joy of years of
+labour, said, "Now look at that; it is just right, and yet it is quite
+simple--there is absolutely nothing in it; now, why can't my man give me
+that?"
+
+I am far from wishing to disparage or undervalue the services of the
+honest gardener, but I think that on this point there ought to be the
+clearest understanding; that the master must not expect from the
+gardener accomplishments that he has no means of acquiring, and that the
+gardener must not assume that his knowledge covers all that can come
+within the scope of the widest and best practice of his craft. There are
+branches of education entirely out of his reach that can be brought to
+bear upon garden planning and arrangement down to the very least detail.
+What the educated employer who has studied the higher forms of gardening
+can do or criticise, he cannot be expected to do or understand; it is in
+itself almost the work of a lifetime, and only attainable, like success
+in any other fine art, by persons of, firstly, special temperament and
+aptitude; and, secondly, by their unwearied study and closest
+application.
+
+But the result of knowledge so gained shows itself throughout the
+garden. It may be in so simple a thing as the placing of a group of
+plants. They can be so placed by the hand that knows, that the group is
+in perfect drawing in relation to what is near; while by the ordinary
+gardener they would be so planted that they look absurd, or unmeaning,
+or in some way awkward and unsightly. It is not enough to cultivate
+plants well; they must also be used well. The servant may set up the
+canvas and grind the colours, and even set the palette, but the master
+alone can paint the picture. It is just the careful and thoughtful
+exercise of the higher qualities that makes a garden interesting, and
+their absence that leaves it blank, and dull, and lifeless. I am
+heartily in sympathy with the feeling described in these words in a
+friend's letter, "I think there are few things so interesting as to see
+in what way a person, whose perceptions you think fine and worthy of
+study, will give them expression in a garden."
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+    Adonis vernalis, 52
+
+    Alcohol, its gravestone, 12
+
+    Alexandrian laurel, 16
+
+    Alstroemerias, best kinds, how to plant, 92
+
+    Amelanchier, 52, 182
+
+    Ampelopsis, 43
+
+    Andromeda Catesbaei, 37;
+      A. floribunda and A. japonica, 50;
+      autumn colouring, 128, 165
+
+    Anemone fulgens, 57;
+      japonica, 109, 207
+
+    Aponogeton, 194
+
+    Apple, Wellington, 12;
+      apple-trees, beauty of form, 25
+
+    Aristolochia Sipho, 43
+
+    Arnebia echioides, 56
+
+    Aromatic plants, 235
+
+    Artemisia Stelleriana, 104
+
+    Arum, wild, leaves with cut daffodils, 58
+
+    Auriculas, 54;
+      seed stolen by mice, 260
+
+    Autumn-sown annuals, 113
+
+    Azaleas, arrangement for colour, 69;
+      A. occidentalis, 70;
+      autumn colouring, 128;
+      as trained for shows, 246
+
+
+    Bambusa Ragamowski, 102
+
+    Beauty of woodland in winter, 7, 153
+
+    Beauty the first aim in gardening, 2, 196, 244, 248, 253, 254
+
+    Bedding-out as a fashion, 263 and onward;
+      bedding rightly used, 265
+
+    Berberis for winter decoration, 16;
+      its many merits, 21
+
+    Bignonia radicans, large-flowered variety, 110
+
+    Birch, its graceful growth, 8;
+      colour of bark, 9;
+      fragrance in April, 51;
+      grouped with holly, 152
+
+    Bird-cherry, 182
+
+    Bitton, Canon Ellacombe's garden at, 206
+
+    Blue-eyed Mary, 44
+
+    Books on gardening, 192 and onward
+
+    Border plants, their young growth in April, 51
+
+    Bracken, 87;
+      cut into layering-pegs, 98;
+      careful cutting, 99;
+      when at its best to cut, 106;
+      autumn colouring, 127
+
+    Bramble, colour of leaves in winter, 20;
+      in forest groups, 44;
+      in orchard, 181;
+      American kinds, 182
+
+    Briar roses, 80, 104
+
+    Bryony, the two wild kinds, 43
+
+    Bulbous plants, early blooming, how best to plant, 49
+
+    Bullfinch, a garden enemy, 262
+
+    Butcher's broom, 151
+
+
+    Cactus, hardy, on rock-wall, 119
+
+    Caltha palustris, 52
+
+    Campanula rapunculus, 257
+
+    Cardamine trifoliata, 50
+
+    Carnations, 94;
+      at shows, 243
+
+    Caryopteris mastacanthus, 102
+
+    Ceanothus, Gloire de Versailles, 205
+
+    Cheiranthus, alpine kinds, 62
+
+    Chimonanthus fragrans, 229
+
+    Chionodoxa sardensis and C. Lucilliae, 32
+
+    Choisya ternata, 63, 71, 205
+
+    Christmas rose, giant kind, 144
+
+    Chrysanthemums, hardy kinds, 144;
+      as trained at shows, 245
+
+    Cistus laurifolius, 37;
+      C. florentinus, 101;
+      C. ladaniferus, 102, 206
+
+    Claret vine, 110
+
+    Clematis cirrhosa, 14;
+      C. flammula when to train, 24;
+      wild clematis in trees and hedges, 43;
+      C. montana, 71, 203;
+      C. Davidiana, 95, 205
+
+    Clergymen as gardeners, 175
+
+    Clerodendron foetidum, 110, 206
+
+    Climbing plants, 202;
+      for pergola, 215
+
+    Colour, of woodland in winter, 19;
+      of leaves of some garden plants, 21;
+      colour-grouping of rhododendrons, 66;
+      of azaleas, 69;
+      colour of foliage of tree paeonies, 73;
+      colour arrangement in the flower-border, 89, 109, 207;
+      colour of bracken in October, 127;
+      of azaleas and andromedas in autumn, 128;
+      of bark of holly, 152;
+      study of, 197;
+      of flowers, how described, 221 and onward
+
+    Copse-cutting, 166
+
+    Corchorus japonicus, 50
+
+    Coronilla varia, 259
+
+    Corydalis capnoides, 50
+
+    Cottage gardens, 4, 185;
+      roses in, 79
+
+    Cottager's way of protecting tender plants, 91
+
+    Cowslips, 59
+
+    Crinums, 206
+
+    Crinums, hybrid, 110, 119;
+      protecting, 146
+
+    Crocuses, eaten by pheasants, 261
+
+
+    Daffodils in the copse, 34;
+      planted in old pack-horse tracks, 48
+
+    Dahlias, staking, 114;
+      digging up, 133
+
+    Delphiniums, 89;
+      grown from seed, 90;
+      D. Belladonna, 91
+
+    Dentaria pinnata, 46
+
+    Deutzia parviflora, 103
+
+    Digging up plants, 139
+
+    Discussions about treatment of certain plants, 3
+
+    Dividing tough-rooted plants, 53;
+      spring-blooming plants, 85;
+      how often, 136;
+      suitable tools, 136 and onward
+
+    Dog-tooth violets, 33, 47
+
+    Doronicum, 53
+
+    Dressing of show flowers, 243
+
+    Dried flowers, 17
+
+    Dwarfing annuals, 249
+
+
+    Edwardsia grandiflora, 206
+
+    Elder trees, 83;
+      elder-wine, 84
+
+    Epilobium angustifolium, white variety, 86
+
+    Epimedium pinnatum, 16, 46
+
+    Erinus alpinus, sown in rock-wall, 121
+
+    Eryngium giganteum, 93;
+      E. maritimum, 93;
+      E. Oliverianum, 93, 209.
+
+    Eulalia japonica, flowers dried, 17
+
+    Evergreen branches for winter decoration, 16
+
+    Everlasting pea, dividing and propagating, 138
+
+    Experimental planting, 183
+
+
+    Felling trees, 162
+
+    Fern Filix foemina in rhododendron beds, 37, 106;
+      Dicksonia punctilobulata, 62;
+      ferns in rock-wall, 120;
+      polypody, 121, 165
+
+    Fern-pegs for layering carnations, 98
+
+    Fern-walk, suitable plants among groups of ferns, 107
+
+    Flower border, 133, 200
+
+    Forms of deciduous trees, beauty of, 25
+
+    Forsythia suspensa and F. viridissima, 50
+
+    Forget-me-not, large kind, 53
+
+    Foxgloves, 270
+
+    Fungi, Amanita, Boletus, Chantarelle, 111
+
+    Funkia grandiflora, 212
+
+
+    Galax aphylla, colour of leaves in winter, 21
+
+    Gale, broad-leaved, 101
+
+    Garden friends, 194
+
+    Garden houses, 215
+
+    Gardening, a fine art, 197
+
+    Garrya elliptica, 202
+
+    Gaultheria Shallon, value for cutting, 16;
+      in rock-garden, 165
+
+    Geraniums as bedding plants, 266 and onward
+
+    Gourds, as used by Mrs. Earle, 18
+
+    Goutweed, 257
+
+    Grape hyacinths, 49, 258
+
+    Grass, Sheep's-fescue, 69
+
+    Grasses for lawn, 147
+
+    Grey-foliaged plants, 207
+
+    Grouping plants that bloom together, 70
+
+    Grubbing, 160;
+      tools, 150, 261
+
+    Guelder-rose as a wall-plant, 71;
+      single kind, 129
+
+    Gypsophila paniculata, 95, 209
+
+
+    Half-hardy border plants in August, 108, 210
+
+    Happiness in gardening, 1, 274
+
+    Hares, as depredators, 260
+
+    Heath sods for protecting tender plants, 91
+
+    Heaths, filling up Rhododendron beds, 37;
+      wild heath among azaleas, 69;
+      cut short in paths, 70;
+      ling, 106
+
+    Hellebores, caulescent kinds in the nut-walk, 9;
+      for cutting, 57, 144;
+      buds stolen by mice, 260.
+
+    Heuchera Richardsoni, 53, 135
+
+    Holly, beauty in winter, 8;
+      grouped with birch, 152;
+      cheerful aspect, 154
+
+    Hollyhocks, the prettiest shape, 105
+
+    Honey-suckle, wild, 43
+
+    Hoof-parings as manure, 133
+
+    Hoop-making, 166, and onward
+
+    Hop, wild, 43
+
+    Hutchinsia alpina, 50
+
+    Hyacinth (wild) in oak-wood, 60
+
+    Hydrangeas, protecting, 146;
+      at foot of wall, 206
+
+    Hyssop, a good wall-plant, 121
+
+
+    Iris alata, 14;
+      I. foetidissima, 120;
+      I. pallida, 129
+
+    Iris stylosa, how to plant, 13;
+      white variety, 14;
+      time of blooming, 33, 164
+
+    Ivy, shoots for cutting, 17
+
+
+    Japan Privet, foliage for winter decoration, 16
+
+    Japan Quince (Cydonia or Pyrus), 50
+
+    Jasminum nudiflorum, 164
+
+    Junction of garden and wood, 34, 270
+
+    Juniper, its merits, 26;
+      its form, action of snow, 27;
+      power of recovery from damage, 29;
+      beauty of colouring, 30;
+      stems in winter dress, 31;
+      in a wild valley, 154, and onward
+
+
+    Kitchen-garden, 179;
+      its sheds, 179, 180
+
+
+    Larch, sweetness in April, 51
+
+    Large gardens, 176
+
+    Lavender, when to cut, 105
+
+    Lawn-making, 146;
+      lawn spaces, 177, 178
+
+    Leaf mould, 149
+
+    Learning, 5, 189, 190, 273
+
+    Lessons of the garden, 6;
+      in wild-tree planting, 154;
+      in orchard planting, 183;
+      of the show-table, 241
+
+    Leucojum vernum, 33
+
+    Leycesteria formosa, 100
+
+    Lilacs, suckers, as strong feeders, good kinds, 23;
+      standards best, 24
+
+    Lilium auratum among rhododendrons, 37, 106;
+      among bamboos, 106
+
+    Lilium giganteum, 95;
+      cultivation needed in poor soil, 142
+
+    Lilium Harrisi and L. speciosum, 106
+
+    Lily of the valley in the copse, 61
+
+    Linaria repens, 259
+
+    London Pride in the rock-wall, 120
+
+    Loquat, 204
+
+    Love-in-a-mist, 251
+
+    Love of gardening, 1
+
+    Luzula sylvatica, 61
+
+
+    Magnolia, branches indoors in winter, 16;
+      magnolia stellata, 50;
+      kinds in the choice shrub-bank, 101
+
+    Mai-trank, 60
+
+    Marking trees for cutting, 151
+
+    Marsh marigold, 52
+
+    Masters and men, 271
+
+    Mastic, 102
+
+    Meconopsis Wallichi, 165
+
+    Medlar, 129
+
+    Megaseas, colour of foliage, 17;
+      M. ligulata, 103;
+      in front edge of flower-border, 211
+
+    Mertensia virginica, 46;
+      sowing the seed, 84
+
+    Mice, 260, 261
+
+    Michaelmas daisies, a garden to themselves, 125;
+      planting and staking, 126;
+      early kinds in mixed border, 135
+
+    Mixed planting, 183;
+      mixed border, 206
+
+    Morells, 59
+
+    Mulleins (V. olympicum and V. phlomoides), 85;
+      mullein-moth, 86, 270
+
+    Muscari of kinds, 49
+
+    Musical reverberation in wood of Scotch fir, 60
+
+    Myosotis sylvatica major, 53
+
+
+    Nandina domestica, 206
+
+    Narcissus cernuus, 12;
+      N. serotinus, 14;
+      N. princeps and N. Horsfieldi in the copse, 48
+
+    Nature's planting, 154
+
+    Nettles, to destroy, 259
+
+    Novelty, 249
+
+    Nut nursery at Calcot, 11
+
+    Nut-walk, 9;
+      catkins, 11;
+      suckers, 11
+
+
+    Oak timber, felling, 60
+
+    Old wall, 72, 116 and onward
+
+    Omphalodes verna, 45
+
+    Ophiopogon spicatum for winter cutting, 16
+
+    Orchard, ornamental, 181
+
+    Orobus vernus, 52;
+      O. aurantiacus, 62
+
+    Othonna cheirifolia, 63
+
+
+    Paeonies and Lent Hellebores grown together, 76
+
+    Paeony moutan grouped with Clematis montana, 70;
+      special garden for paeonies, 72;
+      frequent sudden deaths, 73;
+      varieties of P. albiflora, 74;
+      old garden kinds, 75;
+      paeony species desirable for garden use, 75
+
+    Pansies as cut flowers, 57;
+      at shows, 243
+
+    Parkinson's chapter on carnations, 94
+
+    Pavia macrostachya, 103
+
+    Pea, white everlasting, 95
+
+    Pergola, 212
+
+    Pernettya, 165
+
+    Pests, bird, beast, and insect, 259
+
+    Phacelia campanularia, 63
+
+    Pheasants, as depredators, 261;
+      destroying crocuses, 261
+
+    Philadelphus microphyllus, 103
+
+    Phlomis fruticosa, 103
+
+    Phloxes, 135
+
+    Piptanthus nepalensis, 63, 206
+
+    Planes pollarded, 215
+
+    Planting early, 129;
+      careful planting, 130;
+      planting from pots, 131;
+      careful tree planting, 148
+
+    Platycodon Mariesi, 108
+
+    Plume hyacinth, 49
+
+    Polygala chamaebuxus, 164
+
+    Polygonum compactum, 136;
+      Sieboldi, 258
+
+    "Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden," 18
+
+    Primroses, white and lilac, 44;
+      large bunch-flowered kinds as cut flowers, 58;
+      seedlings planted out, 85;
+      primrose garden, 216
+
+    Primula denticulata, 184
+
+    Progress in gardening, 249
+
+    Prophet-flower (Arnebia), 56
+
+    Protecting tender plants, 145
+
+    Pterocephalus parnassi, 107
+
+    Pyrus Maulei, 50
+
+
+    Queen wasps, 63
+
+    Quince, 128
+
+
+    Rabbits, 260
+
+    Ranunculus montanus, 50
+
+    Raphiolepis ovata, 204
+
+    Rhododendrons, variation in foliage, 35;
+      R. multum maculatum, 35;
+      plants to fill bare spaces among, 37;
+      arrangement for colour, 64 and onward;
+      hybrid of R. Aucklandi, 69;
+      alpine, 165
+
+    Ribbon border, 266
+
+    Ribes, 50
+
+    Robinia hispida, 203
+
+    Rock garden, making and renewing, 115
+
+    Rock-wall, 116 and onward
+
+    Rosemary, 204
+
+    Roses, pruning, tying, and training, 38;
+      fence planted with free roses, 38;
+      Reine Olga de Wurtemburg, 38;
+      climbing and rambling roses, 39;
+      Fortune's yellow, Banksian, 40;
+      wild roses, 43;
+      garden roses: Provence, moss, damask, R. alba, 78;
+      roses in cottage gardens, ramblers and fountains, 79;
+      free growth of Rosa polyantha, 80;
+      two good, free roses for cutting, 80;
+      Burnet rose and Scotch briars, Rosa lucida, 81;
+      tea roses: best kinds for light soil, pegging, pruning, 82;
+      roses collected in Capri, 105;
+      second bloom of tea roses, 110;
+      jam made of hips of R. rugosa, 111, 184;
+      R. arvensis, garden form of, 129;
+      R. Boursault elegans, 192;
+      China, 205;
+      their scents, 235
+
+    Ruscus aculeatus, 151;
+      R. racemosus, 152
+
+    Ruta patavina, a late-flowering rock-plant, 107
+
+
+    Sambucus ebulis, 258
+
+    Satin-leaf (Heuchera Richardsoni), 53
+
+    Scilla maritima, 14;
+      S. sibirica, S. bifolia, 32
+
+    Scents of flowers, 229 and onward
+
+    Scotch fir, pollen, 53;
+      cones opening, 54;
+      effect of sound in fir-wood, 60
+
+    Show flowers, 242
+
+    Show-table, what it teaches, 241
+
+    Shrub-bank, 101;
+      snug place for tender shrubs, 121
+
+    Shrub-wilderness of the old home, 100
+
+    Skimmeas, 101, 165
+
+    Slugs, 262
+
+    Smilacina bifolia, 61
+
+    Snapdragon, 251
+
+    Snowstorm of December 1886, 27
+
+    Snowy Mespilus (Amelanchier), 52
+
+    Solanum crispum, 204
+
+    Solomon's seal, 61
+
+    Spindle-tree, 127
+
+    Spiraea Thunbergi, 50, 104;
+      S. prunifolia, 104
+
+    St. John's worts, choice, 103
+
+    Stephanandra flexuosa, 103
+
+    Sternbergia lutea, 139
+
+    Sticks and stakes, 163
+
+    Storms in autumn, 122
+
+    Styrax japonica, 101
+
+    Suckers of nuts, 11;
+      robbers, how to remove, 24;
+      on grafted rhododendrons, 36
+
+    Sunflowers, perennial, 134
+
+    Sweetbriar, rambling, 39;
+      fragrance in April, 51
+
+    Sweet-leaved small shrubs, 34, 57, 101
+
+    Sweet peas, autumn sown, 83, 112
+
+
+    Thatching with hoop-chips, 169
+
+    Thinning the nut-walk, 10;
+      thinning shrubs, 22;
+      trees in copse, 151
+
+    Tiarella cordifolia, 53;
+      colour of leaves in winter, 21
+
+    Tools for dividing, 136;
+      for tree cutting and grubbing, 150;
+      woodman's, 158;
+      axe and wedge, 159;
+      rollers, 160;
+      cross-cut saw, 162
+
+    Training the eye, 4;
+      training Clematis flammula, 24
+
+    Transplanting large trees, 147
+
+    Trillium grandiflorum, 61
+
+    Tritomas, protecting, 146
+
+    Tulips, show kinds and their origin, 55;
+      T. retroflexa, 55;
+      other good garden kinds, 56
+
+
+    Various ways of gardening, 3
+
+    Verbascum olympicum and V. phlomoides, 85
+
+    Villa garden, 171
+
+    Vinca acutiflora, 139
+
+    Vine, black Hamburg at Calcot, 12;
+      as a wall-plant, 42;
+      good garden kinds, 42;
+      claret vine, 110, 205;
+      Vitis Coignettii, 123
+
+    Violets, the pale St. Helena, 45;
+      Czar, 140
+
+    Virginian cowslip, 46;
+      its colouring, 47;
+      sowing seed, 84
+
+
+    Wall pennywort, 120
+
+    Water-elder, a beautiful neglected shrub, 123
+
+    Weeds, 256
+
+    Wild gardening misunderstood, 269
+
+    Wilson, Mr. G. F.'s garden at Wisley, 184
+
+    Window garden, 185
+
+    Winter, beauty of woodland, 7
+
+    Wistaria chinensis, 43
+
+    Whortleberry under Scotch fir, 51, 61
+
+    Woodman at work, 158
+
+    Woodruff, 60
+
+    Wood-rush, 61, 165
+
+    Wood-work, 163
+
+
+    Xanthoceras sorbifolia, 103
+
+
+    Yellow everlasting, 120
+
+    Yuccas, some of the best kinds, 91;
+      in flower-border, 201
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+    Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+    Edinburgh & London
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+  1. Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+  (where both are acceptable usage)
+  2. Inconsistencies in the use of capitalisation and spelling within
+  botanical names have been retained from the original (where both are
+  acceptable usage).
+  3. Punctuation has been normalised.
+  4. Page numbering format in the index has been standardised.
+  5. The following words have been changed:
+
+  p. 52 Amelancheir to Amelanchier: The snowy Mespilus (_Amelanchier_)
+  p. 89 at to as: such as Globe Artichoke
+  p. 93 Olivieranum to Oliverianum: useful is _E. Oliverianum_
+  p. 109 Rudbekia to Rudbeckia: _Rudbeckia Newmanni_ reflects
+  p. 110 accomypaning to accompanying: the accompanying attacks
+  p. 100 Ailantus to Ailanthus: and Ailanthus and Hickory
+  p. 138 Olivieranum to Oliverianum: and _Eryngium Oliverianum_.
+  p. 206 foetidium to foetidum: Hydrangeas, _Clerodendron foetidum_
+  p. 209 Olivieranum to Oliverianum: _Eryngium Oliverianum_ has turned
+  p. 281 ladaniferns to ladaniferus: C. ladaniferus, 102, 206
+  p. 281 Olivieranum to Oliverianum: E. Oliverianum, 93, 209
+  p. 285 Coignetti to Coignettii: Vitis Coignettii, 123
+
+  6. p. 170 in the bill of sale, a "letter" best described as an inverted
+  V, is here represented by [V]: IIXXX.I., IIXXXX.II[V] IIII[V]XX, IIXX
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wood and Garden, by Gertrude Jekyll
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOOD AND GARDEN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 36279.txt or 36279.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/2/7/36279/
+
+Produced by StevenGibbs, Tracey-Ann Mayor and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/36279.zip b/36279.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9653e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/36279.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2d3c3b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #36279 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36279)